ARCHON: framework for intelligent cooperation

The paper describes the work that has taken place in the ARCHON Project, ESPRIT project P-2256. The consortium has developed a general-purpose architecture, which can be used to facilitate cooperative problem-solving in industrial applications. The paper describes the need for a multiple agent approach for industrial applications, outlines the benefits which can be accrued by adopting this paradigm, and describes the key difficulties which must be faced when building a multi-agent system in this domain. Details of the ARCHON architecture are presented, including a description of the main functional components and their realisation in a hybrid agent model. An example of cooperative fault diagnosis in an electricity management application is described in order to provide a clear illustration of the working of the ARCHON architecture, and to provide a concrete example of the potential benefits of a multi-agent approach