An ontology-based multi-agent environment to improve collaborative design (original) (raw)

The paper presents a knowledge-based approach for collaborative design using a task ontology and a multi-agent architecture. In an educational project, students from two different countries must collaborate to design an electro-mechanical device. Collaboration is a fragile question in pedagogical environments because students very often develop activities in an isolated way and there is no real exchange of knowledge. We offer a tool for improving the early stages of collaboration through a system that provides communication support for design or project management tasks. Agents use knowledge to guide users during the collaborative process. Our multi-agent system works in a passive way. Students are free to accept the suggestions/directions of the system or not. A personal assistant captures and shares personal knowledge (experiences) while cognitive autonomous agents use ontologies to guide the interactions among the students. Keywords: Knowledge Management, Ontology-based Project Management, Collaborative Design, Pedagogical Design Environment. · the Taxia project [14]: a hundred students from twelve engineering schools in France were assigned the prototype development of an industrial vehicle. · the CADAU project [11] [12]: two groups of students collaborate to design an electromechanical device. Each group works separately, one in the US and the other in France.