Multiagent production systems

Abstract

This chapter has proposed a transaction model that enables multiagent production systems to interact with each other by referring to or changing shared WM information. A database transaction model cannot be applied for this purpose, because it basically aims to enable multiple processes to be executed independently rather than interactively. In the proposed transaction model, a transaction is formed each time a rule is selected for firing. An efficient concurrency control protocol called the lazy lock protocol is proposed that guarantees inter-agent consistency.

However, as a result of allowing interleaving of rule firings among multiagent production systems, the inter-transaction consistency becomes a new problem. One solution is presented to overcome this problem: to formalize a logical dependency model for the shared WM, and maintain those dependencies each time the WM is updated. Further study is required to guarantee inter-transaction consistency and so extend the applicability of multiagent production systems.