Evolution of the GPGP/TÆMS Domain-Independent Coordination Framework

  • Authors:

  • V. Lesser;K. Decker;T. Wagner;N. Carver;A. Garvey;B. Horling;D. Neiman;R. Podorozhny;M. Nagendra Prasad;A. Raja;R. Vincent;P. Xuan;X. Q. Zhang

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 USA/ lesser@cs.umass.edu;Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Delaware, Newark DE 19716 USA/ decker@udel.edu;Honeywell Research Lab, Minneapolis, MN 55418 USA/ wagner&lowbar/tom@htc.honeywell.com;Department of Computer Science, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901 USA/ carver@cs.siu.edu;Department of Computer Science, Truman State University, Kirksville, MO 63501 USA/ agarvey@truman.edu;Department of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 USA/ bhorling@cs.umass.edu;River Logic, Inc., Beverly, MA 01915 USA/ dneiman@riverlogic.com;Department of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 USA/ podorozh@cs.utexas.edu;PeopleSoft, Pleasanton, CA 94588 USA/ naghi&lowbar/prasad@peoplesoft.com;Department of Computer Science, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC 28223 USA/ anraja@uncc.edu;SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025 USA/ vincent@ai.sri.com;Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Clark University, Worcester, MA 01610 USA/ pxuan@clarku.edu;Department of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts, N. Dartmouth, MA 02747 USA/ x2zhang@umassd.edu

  • Venue:
  • Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems
  • Year:
  • 2004

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Abstract

The GPGP/TÆMS domain-independent coordination framework for small agent groups was first described in 1992 and then more fully detailed in an ICMAS'95 paper. In this paper, we discuss the evolution of this framework which has been motivated by its use in a number of applications, including: information gathering and management, intelligent home automation, distributed situation assessment, coordination of concurrent engineering activities, hospital scheduling, travel planning, repair service coordination and supply chain management. First, we review the basic architecture of GPGP and then present extensions to the TÆMS domain-independent representation of agent activities. We next describe extensions to GPGP that permit the representation of situation-specific coordination strategies and social laws as well as making possible the use of GPGP in large agent organizations. Additionally, we discuss a more encompassing view of commitments that takes into account uncertainty in commitments. We then present new coordination mechanisms for use in resource sharing and contracting, and more complex coordination mechanisms that use a cooperative search among agents to find appropriate commitments. We conclude with a summary of the major ideas underpinning GPGP, an analysis of the applicability of the GPGP framework including performance issues, and a discussion of future research directions.