Multi-Agent Systems for Concurrent Intelligent Design and Manufacturing

✍ Scribed by Weiming Shen (Author)

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2001
• Leaves: 403
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Agent Technology, or Agent-Based Approaches, is a new paradigm for developing software applications. It has been hailed as `the next significant breakthrough in software development`, and `the new revolution in software` after object technology or object-oriented programming.

In this context, an agent is a computer system which is capable of act

✦ Table of Contents

Part One: Introduction Chapter 1: General Introduction. 1.1 Motivation. 1.2 Book Organization. 1.3 How To Use This Book. Chapter 2: Collaborative Design and Manufacturing. 2.1 Introduction. 2.2 Engineering Design. 2.3 Advanced Manufacturing Systems. 2.4 Next Generation Collaborative Design and Manufacturing Systems. Chapter 3: DAI and Agents. 3.1 Classic AI and DAI. 3.2 Research Themes in DAI. 3.3 Models of DAI Systems. 3.4 Objects vs. Agents. 3.5 Different Types of Agents. 3.6. Why Agents for Collaborative Design and Manufacturing. Part Two: Important Issues Chapter 4: Knowledge Representation in Agent-Based Concurrent Design and Manufacturing Systems. 4.1 Introduction 4.2 What needs to be Represented. 4.3 How to Represent Knowledge in Agent-Based Systems. 4.4 Research Literature and Further References. Chapter 5: Learning in Agent-Based Concurrent Design and Manufacturing Systems. 5.1 Introdution. 5.2 Why to Learn. 5.3 Single-Agent Learning or Multi-Agent Learning. 5.4 When to Learn. 5.5 Where to Learn. 5.6 What is to be Learned. 5.7 How to Learn. 5.8 Examples. 5.9 Research Literature and Additional References. Chapter 6: Agent Structures. 6.1 Introduction. 6.2 Desirable characteristics of an agent. 6.3 Essential Modules (Components) for agents. 6.4 Different Approaches. 6.5 Comparison of Different Approaches. 6.6 Research Literature and further References. Chapter 7: Multi-Agent System Architectures. 7.1 Introduction. 7.2 Organization and System Architectures. 7.3 Different Approaches. 7.4 Select a suitable system architecture for a specific application. 7.5 Research Literature and Additional Readings. Chapter 8: Communication, Cooperation and Coordination. 8.1 Introduction. 8.2 Communication. 8.3 Coordination. 8.4 Cooperation. 8.5 Coordination, Cooperation and Communication. 8.6 Research Literature and Further References. Chapter 9: Collaboration, Task Decompsition and Allocation. 9.1 Introduction. 9.2 Different Approaches for Task Decomposition and Allocation.