Knowledge-based conflict resolution for cooperation among expert agents

Cooperating human experts are able to integrate their skills and knowledge productively to achieve goals beyond their individual capabilities. Machine agents may someday increase their power similarly by working in teams of specialized experts. To do this, the systems must be able to communicate knowledge, propose solutions, resolve conflicts that occur during problem-solving, and agree on results. We describe the Cooperating Experts Framework (CEF), a generic framework that supports cooperative problem-solving among sets of knowledge-based systems. The systems solve subproblems relevant to their specific expertise and integrate their efforts using conflict resolution strategies. CEF provides scheduling and communication support for the agents, a set of conflict resolution strategies, and a set of heuristics for choosing the most effective strategy for the situation. We also describe STEAMER, a system implemented in the CEF framework, that designs steam condensers.