The Mediator: An Artificial Actor Integrated in a Cooperative Design System

In this paper we present the specification of the interactions between an artificial actor mediator and the cooperative actors of a design system, developed to give support to mechanical system designer activities. The use of cooperative systems must contain a sufficient level of assistance to facilitate and coordinate the actor's activities (control of tasks and collective problem resolution). To accomplish this goal we introduce an artificial actor: the Mediator. To illustrate our approach we will present the specification of the interaction of a system of mediation, embedded in a cooperative functional analysis toolbox. We consider two interaction levels: the interactions between actors (natural and artificial), and the interactions between the agents who compose the mediating actor.