Interaction protocols for a network of environmental problem solvers

Abstract

Environmental management and emergency response often involves the joint cooperation of a network of distributed problem solvers, each of which may be specialised for a specific task or problem domain. Some of these problem solvers could be human, others could be `intelligent' environmental monitoring and control systems. Environmental software systems are needed not only for the provision of basic environmental information but also to support the coordination of these problem solvers. An agent architecture can support the requirement associated with disparate problem solvers. The various stakeholders in the process are represented by software agents which can collaborate with each other toward achieving a particular goal. The communication between agents can be accomplished by using interaction protocols which are represented by coloured Petri nets (CPN). This paper describes an approach for providing this support by employing a software agent framework for the modelling and execution of environmental process tasks in a networked environment.