Design considerations for the implementation of multi-agent systems in the dairy industry

The objectives of this research were: (a) to perform a survey of current research in the area of multi-agent systems in order to learn more about how they could be designed and implemented; (b) to investigate the feasibility of such an approach for agriculture, based on an integration of currently existing technologies; and, more specifically (c) to assess the potential of a multi-agent approach in the context of decision support for dairy production. The results of this work highlighted a number of key concepts in multi-agent system design, including the importance of selecting an appropriate system architecture for agent coordination (e.g., peer-to-peer, federated, or blackboard-based) and the need for well-defined agent communication methods (language and ontology). Alternative technologies, used in the implementation of multi-agent systems (e.g., communication protocols and distributed computing methods), were also explored. Lastly, a case study was carried out, in which some of the discussed technologies were tested and implemented to create a multi-agent heifer management system. The system consists of two different types of agents and several databases, and was implemented on a PC-based network. The agents work together to synthesize data about heifer development from different sources and to present this to the user in a graphical format. The system demonstrates the feasibility of applying an agent-based approach, using currently available technology, to problems such as dairy herd management in which a distributed decision-support solution is often required. It is concluded that the constraints for the implementation of multi-agent systems do not appear to be of a technological nature; the challenge seems to be more one of defining and accepting a common ontology and communication language by members of a given industry. In addition, large-scale distributed systems will require sophisticated agent-coordination methods to ensure robust and efficient operation.