Network operating agents as means for decentralized decision support systems

Decentralized decision support systems under consideration are introduced for management of large scale, spatially distributed organizations. Such an organization consists of several autonomous subsystems and there exist human beings that govern the subsystems and influence behavior of the whole. Formal description and specification of the systems based on the notion of an autonomous agent and agent system is presented. Activities of the human beings are partially taken over by computer agents. The management is done by interchanging messages according to a negotiation protocol. Features of the presented approach are discussed and references to prototypes, developed based on the idea, pointed out. Copyright (C) 1998 IFAC.