Research Of MAS-based Workflow System

Workflow system is a system organization style which is combination of the traditional work process management style and computer software engineering technology, and is widely applied to the fields such as image processing, file management, logistics system, and now is the core technique to build enterprise information system such as GRP, CRM, logistics system. Then multi-Agent technology is combination of the traditional artificial intelligence problem solving pattern and distributed computing technology, Agent is the first-class citizen of a multi-Agent system, which has characters such as autonomy, social ability, reactivity, pro-activity, and so on. Nowadays this style of system architecture plays more important roles in complex system design, decision support, and enterprise system integration.This paper first presents a multi-Agent based workflow system design solution in which system is divided into six parts. Workflow parsing part takes charge of process-definition file parsing; APL parsing part takes charge of APL based Agent object file parsing and manages goal and plan database; Agent core part builds the Agent singleton; JADE part provides the communication technique, is a middle-ware; Algothrim part takes charge of algothrim database and provides algothrim support; scene testing part is used for system test.On this basis, a project which is replacing real person with actor Agent is discussed in detail in this paper. The idea, which is using actor Agent to complete some of person`s job, can enhance the working efficiency of workflow system and improve the system's intelligence.Finally, we have implemented a holiday requesting workflow which is based by multi-Agent communication technique according to the methods described in this paper, and have imported actor Agent and scene testing into the system. And We list process-definition file and APL sample file in the appendix. We believe that this platform will be an effective tool for building the virtual manAgent of workflow system.