Applications
The research carried out was applied to two domains:
-
The CERN Domain - A real world scenario from the CERN institute,
where conflicting beliefs regarding the operation of the particle accelerator
were analysed (see "Beliefs
and Conflicts in a Real World Multiagent System" ). CERN is an European
research institute and its particle accelerator compound is one of the
world's most sophisticated high energy research centres. The accelerator
operation and the maintenance of the underlying computing control system
are complex tasks, difficult to survey, and where the necessary knowledge
and the control system are naturally distributed.
The specific cooperation scenario studied is centred around an expert
system developed at CERN using database technology referred as BCD Checker.
This scenario is particularly well suited for the investigation of conflict
resolution because conflicts and conflict resolution are inherent and necessary
for the everyday operation of the accelerators. If the agent that creates
the beam schedule for the accelerators had complete knowledge about the
physical constraints of the accelerators and their control system, then
it would be too complex. As a result, the BCD Editor agent has incomplete
knowledge - when it creates plans to achieve its goals, it creates beliefs
that may be inconsistent with the beliefs of the BCD Checker agent. The
BCD Checker agent incorporates the knowledge about the accelerators and
control system constraints. So, in order to create an executable beam schedule
for the accelerators, the agents may have to revise their beliefs and create
new plans. The application of the developed distributed belief revision
model to solve these problems and the relationship between belief revision
and conflict resolution were investigated.
-
The Project Location Domain - Project development is a complex task
comprising three main stages: (i) the project design phase - where the
effort is focussed on the search of the technical solutions; (ii) the project
location phase - where the effort is concentrated on finding locations
which satisfy the project requirements as well as comply with the applicable
legal restrictions; and, finally, (iii) the implementation phase. Typically,
the project team after establishing the technical solutions, identifying
the project land requirements (area, natural resources, transports, price,
etc.), and finding an adequate location, has to submit the whole
package to the required evaluation agencies. The evaluation agencies role
is to verify, within their domain of competence, the compliance of the
applicable legislation. The outcome of the evaluation agencies is crucial
since it decides the future of the project: an approval leads directly
into the implementation phase; a conditional approval leads to requirements
re-assessments and/or project re-location, and re-evaluation cycle; and
a rejection dictates the unsuccessful end of the project. To avoid unwanted
rejections or endless location searches, resubmission and re-evaluation
cycles the design stage should take into account, not only the project
requirements (technical and economical solutions worked out by the
project team) but also, the external applicable restrictions (social, legal,
and environmental constraints verified by the evaluation agencies). In
this scenario adequate project location is an inherently distributed activity
where conflicting beliefs regarding the location of the projects occur
frequently.
The aim of the intelligent decision support system under development
(see "Environmental
Decision Support: a Multi-Agent Approach" for an early description
of the application) is to assist the project team in the finding adequate
project locations which comply with the applicable legislation and satisfy
the project requirements. The expected inputs are the project requirements
(natural resources, area, transport requirements, etc.) identified by the
project team and the physical/social/economical characteristics of the
candidate region (stored in a Geographical Information System). The output
are the set candidate areas that satisfy the applicable restrictions and
the project requirements (it can be an empty set if there no adequate areas
were found).
If you have questions, comments or suggestions, please
contact:
Benedita Malheiro E-mail:
[email protected]
Eugenio Oliveira
E-mail: [email protected]
Last updated: 22/01/99