Methods, apparatus and computer programs for automated problem solving in a distributed, collaborative environment

摘要

Provided are methods, apparatus or computer programs for collaborative problem solving and/or automated discovery and dynamic integration of capabilities in a distributed, multidisciplinary work environment. A set of software-implemented agents distributed across a network are used to identify agents and resources on the network that are capable of performing required tasks. The agents collaborate to generate a plan comprising a task allocation and task execution sequence in which tasks are allocated to selected ones of the agents and identified resources, and then the selected agents and resources execute the allocated tasks in accordance with the generated plan. Services (such as processing functions and knowledge) provided by hardware and software resources in a network are represented as ‘capabilities’ of an associated agent. The functions implemented by each agent are also represented as ‘capabilities’. The abstract ‘capabilities’ can be published and then discovered and dynamically integrated to solve domain specific problems.