Collaborative Design Collaboration Support Technology Research

Collaboration is a common phenomenon in human society. People interact with each other continually and usually without much effort, yet it is not an easy task to provide computer support for collaboration. In this research, computer support techniques and theory especially those based on multi-agent systems for a special type of work-collaborative design, are explored. Following are the major works:1. Multi-agent theory for supporting collaboration in the domain of collaborative design is explored. The rational behaviors of agents are determined by their mental elements such as belief, desire and intention, and the precondition of collaboration among agents is that they form a collaboration oriented joint mental state. In this paper, a collaborative design system is regarded as a multi-agent system. A collaboration oriented joint intention named "joint endeavor" and a cooperative activity management scheme are proposed for effective management of cooperative activities by software agents in the system. A collaborative design process is often a long and complex one using approaches based on task decomposition. Automatic or half-automatic management of cooperative activities such as design, task decomposition and synthesis by software agents can provide effective support for collaboration.2. A hierarchical operation model for collaborative design is proposed for implementing the scheme for collaborative activity management based on assistant agents. The model has three layers: the upper layer is consisted of designers, the bottom layer is the shared design objects, and the middle layer is a multi-agent system composed of assistant agents. The three layers are connected by operation relations between them. Each designer can directly manipulate his or her assistant agent, but can only indirectly operate on the shared objects through the middle agent layer. Cooperative activities are monitored and managed because design and many interactive activities must be carried out through assistant agents with a joint endeavor toward the design task. The implementation method of the hierarchical operation model, including the assistant agent's implementation architecture, the deposition scheme and access and concurrency control of the shared objects, and the system communication...