ARCHON: A Framework for Intelligent Cooperation

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Description/Abstract

This paper describes the work which has taken place in the ARCHON project - ESPRIT project P-2256. The consortium has developed a general purpose architecture which can be used to facilitate cooperative problem solving in industrial applications. The paper describes the need for a multiple agent approach for industrial applications, outlines the benefits which can be accrued by adopting this paradigm, and describes the key difficulties which must be faced when building a multi-agent system in this domain. Details of the ARCHON architecture are then presented, including a description of the main functional components and their realisation in a hybrid agent model. Finally, an example of cooperative fault diagnosis in an electricity management application is described in order to provide a clear illustration of the working of the ARCHON architecture and to provide a concrete example of the potential benefits of a multi-agent approach.