Archon was a successfull project which aimed at the conceptualization as well as implementation of a
multi-agent system platform enabling the cooperation between heterogeneous, and complex, systems.
The platform, called ARCHON Abstract Machine, has been developed first in Lisp (early prototypes in Prolog)
and finally rewritten in C++.
The main theoretical concepts involved in Archon were related with the sophisticated Agent Architecture,
which has, besides all the communication facilities for interaction, both with other Agents and the
embedded Intelligent Systems, a complex, rule-based Decision Making module responsible for a suitable
cooperation among the existing agents.
Important application partners were, since the beginning, deeply involved in the project and, in the end, the
Archon software has been applied to the Diagnosis and Management of Electric Distribution Networks (in
Spain) as
well as for controling a complex Ciment Kiln in Greece. Also a Flexible Robotic Cell has been controled
using the same paradigm in Porto. A Cooperating Expert Systems Shell, UPShell, had been developed both to
generate and to make them cooperate specific Expert Systems having an overall common goal.
You may get all the Technical reports from Dr. Thies Wittig, STN Atlas Elektronik, Sebaldsbruker
Heerstrasse, D-2800 14 GERMANY.
Our group NIAD&R-Distributed Artificial Intelligence & Robotics
Laboratory under the coordination of
Eugenio C. Oliveira
who is Professor at the University of
Oporto,
Department of Computing and Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,
worked together with QMWC in designing the Decision-Making module, reponsible for the necessary
reasoning for cooperation as well as conflict resolution. We also implemented the UPShell and
the Multi-Agent System-based Robotic Testbed.
A book has been published during the Project with the main ideas behind Archon work: