Strategies for real-time dialogue and interaction in multiagent systems

Agent dialogue and interaction protocols, which are important in achieving intelligent collective behavior from a set of heterogeneous agents in real-time computer systems, are addressed. The characteristics of such agents are analyzed and classified into several generic classes. A bulletin board model is proposed as a flexible paradigm for supporting the coexistence of disparate agents and for investigating agent interaction mechanisms. A set of protocols for agent dialogue and interaction is suggested. The analysis places a strong emphasis on the time in properties of such protocols and on the need to satisfy temporal constraints in real-time environments.<
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