An Agent-based Approach to Support the Formation of Virtual Enterprises
Abstract
This thesis presents an agent-based approach to support the formation of Virtual Enterpises. Virtual Enterprises are formed by individual entities that come together as a team of partners that collaborate to achieve a speci c goal. The dynamic nature of Virtual Enterprises imposes strong demands on its formation. Thus, the capability of effectively assembling the best team of partners is key to its success.
The aim of this work is to consider a Virtual Enterprise from the point of view of Enterprise Modelling and Enterprise Integration and to propose an agent-based approach for supporting the formation of VEs quickly and e ciently. The agent-based support is aimed at providing decision-making support for human beings by using software agents in the evaluation and selection of partners for a Virtual Enterprise.
The agent-based approach uses software agents to represent the partners of a Virtual Enterprise and consists of an agent-based model, the Virtual Enterprise formation process and a multi-agent architecture to support the formation process. The agentbased model proposes a means of de ning the main concepts of a Virtual Enterprise: goals, activities, roles, requirements and agents, and the relationships among them. The Virtual Enterprise formation process is analysed as an Agent Interaction Protocol to identify the interactions among the agents and the information that is exchanged. The AGORA multi-agent architecture has been adapted to support the formation process.
The work presented in this thesis is based on both theoretical and empirical work. The initial ideas were based on the literature and experiences from industry and two research projects CAGIS and Globeman 21. The agent-based approach was validated using several industrial case studies.
The agent-based approach, which considers the concept of a Virtual Enterprise and its formation process in terms of agents is the main result of this work. The main contributions are an agent-based de nition of a Virtual Enterprise, an agent-based model of a Virtual Enterprise, Agent Interaction Protocols for the formation processes and a multi-agent architecture to support the formation of Virtual Enterprises. The case studies provided an evaluation framework for the applicability of this agent-based approach and a set of requirements to improve it.
Has parts
Paper 1: Petersen, Sobah Abbas; Gruninger, Michael. An Agent-based Model to Support the Formation of Virtual Enterprises. International ICSC Symposium on Mobile Agents and Multi-agents in Virtual Organisations and E-Commerce (MAMA'2000)Paper 2: Petersen, Sobah Abbas; Divitini, Monica. Using Agents to Support the Selection of Virtual Enterprise Teams. The Fourth International Bi-Conference Workshop on Agent-Oriented Information Systems (AOIS-2002) (at AAMAS 2002) AOIS'02: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Agent-Oriented Information Systems - Volume 59 Pages 98–112
Paper 3: Petersen, Sobah Abbas; Divitini, Monica; Matskin, Mihhail. An Agent-based approach to modelling Virtual Enterprises. Production planning & control 2001 ;Volum 12.(3) https://doi.org/10.1080/095372801300107707
Paper 4: Petersen, Sobah Abbas; Rao, Jinghai; Matskin, Mihhail. Virtual Enterprise Formation with Agents - an Approach to Implementation. IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology 2003 https:/doi.org/10.1109/IAT.2003.1241137
Paper 5: Petersen, Sobah Abbas. An Agent-based Evaluation Framework for Supporting Virtual Enterprise Formation. IEEE 12th International Workshop on Enabling Technologies, Infrastructures for Collaborative Enterprises, WET-ICE2003 https://doi.org/10.1109/ENABL.2003.1231401
Paper 6: Petersen, Sobah Abbas; Husøy, Geir J.; Karlsen, Edgar; Matskin, Mihhail. Requirements for an Agent-based Approach to Support Virtual Enterprises. Fourth IFIP Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises PRO-VE'03 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35704-1_9
Paper 7: Petersen, Sobah Abbas; Matskin, Mihhail. Agent Interaction Protocols for the Selection of Partners for Virtual Enterprises. Third International Central and Eastern European Conference on Multi-agent Systems CEEMAS 2003 https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45023-8_58