Agent cooperation: a Petri net based model

Abstract

The purpose is to devise an operating model for systems involving several naturally distributed physical entities designed to achieve a predefined collective task. The model is based on the idea that two different types of functionalities are involved when designing cooperative agents: functionalities defining cooperation itself; and functionalities linked to cooperation implementation. Cooperation supposes the definition of the following three elements: each agent's local behaviour to take part in the collective task: his local goal, his possible decisions and actions; each agent's behaviour within the group: what he has to be committed to; a global criterion for cooperation assessment: this criterion concerns the current result of the cooperative task, the status of this result, and the status of the group.