Formal Modelling of Dynamic Coalitions, with an Application in Chemical Engineering Technical rept. series

摘要

Dynamic coalitions are temporary alliances formed between agents in order to achieve specific business goals. Such coalitions can vary widely in architecture, scale, complexity and lifetime. Few techniques have so far emerged to assist in the analysis and design of coalitions. We apply formal model-oriented techniques to help structure the space of dynamic coalitions, with an emphasis on modeling information flow. A series of models is developed in VDM, each emphasizing a different 'dimension' of the space. These are used to characterize a new dynamic coalition architecture under development for the chemical engineering industry. Tool-supported analysis of this formal model has identified potential improvements in the coalition architecture.