Facilitating agent apparatus and agent system equipped with the same

• US 6,564,196 B1
• Filed: 12/21/1999
• Issued: 05/13/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/25/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Masuoka, Ryusuke
• Primary Examiner(s): Davis, George B.
• Application Number:
  US09/466,131
• Time in Patent Office: 1,239 Days
• Field of Search: 706/45, 706/48, 706/59, 706/46
• US Class Current: 706/45
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/043 Distributed expert systems; Blackboards

Abstract

In a facilitating agent apparatus, a message processing section and an element processing section replace knowledge transmitted from another agent apparatus by a superior concept, combine the knowledge with another knowledge, transform ontology, or the like, based on meta-knowledge accumulated in a meta-knowledge storing section, and transmit the resulting knowledge to still another agent apparatus. Furthermore, if transmitted knowledge is denied, the message processing section and the element processing section create a message for denying their own knowledge transmitted to another agent apparatus, based on the denied knowledge.

Claims

1. A facilitating agent apparatus for allowing a message to be exchanged among a plurality of agents, comprising:

a message transmission/receiving section for transmitting/receiving a message to/from another agent apparatus;

a meta-knowledge storing section for accumulating meta-knowledge;

a message processing section for converting a received message based on the meta-knowledge, so as to create a retransmission message for transmitting a content of the received message to another agent apparatus; and

a message conversion section for abstracting knowledge contained in the received message, so as to create knowledge to be contained in the retransmission message.

2. A facilitating agent apparatus for allowing a message to be exchanged among a plurality of agents, comprising:

a message transmission/receiving section for transmitting/receiving a message to/from another agent apparatus;

a meta-knowledge storing section for accumulating meta-knowledge; and

a message processing section for converting a received message based on the meta-knowledge, so as to create a retransmission message for transmitting a content of the received message to another agent apparatus,

wherein the message processing section creates the retransmission message only when receiving a received message containing a predetermined range of knowledge.

3. The facilitating agent apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the predetermined range is a range of knowledge shared with another facilitating agent apparatus, and

the message transmission/receiving section transmits the retransmission message only to a facilitating agent apparatus sharing knowledge among other facilitating agent apparatuses.

4. A facilitating agent apparatus for allowing a message to be exchanged among a plurality of agents, comprising:

a message transmission/receiving section for transmitting/receiving a message to/from another agent apparatus;

a meta-knowledge storing section for accumulating meta-knowledge;

a message processing section for converting a received message based on the meta-knowledge, so as to create a retransmission message for transmitting a content of the received message to another agent apparatus;

a knowledge storing section for storing the knowledge of the facilitating agent apparatus; and

an own-knowledge transmission message creating section for creating a message for transmitting knowledge stored in the knowledge storing section to another facilitating agent apparatus.

5. The facilitating agent apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the own-knowledge transmission message creating section creates the message on start-up of the facilitating agent apparatus.

6. The facilitating agent apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the own-knowledge transmission message creating section creates the message with respect to all the knowledge stored in the knowledge storing section.

7. The facilitating agent apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the own-knowledge transmission message creating section creates the message with respect to a predetermined range of knowledge among the knowledge stored in the knowledge storing section.

8. An agent system comprising a plurality of facilitating agent apparatuses for propagating knowledge among the facilitating agent apparatuses, each agent comprising:

a message transmission/receiving section for transmitting/receiving a message to/from another agent apparatus;

a meta-knowledge storing section for accumulating meta-knowledge;

a message processing section for converting a received message based on the meta-knowledge, so as to create a retransmission message for transmitting a content of the received message to another agent apparatus; and

a message conversion section for abstracting knowledge contained in the received message, so as to create knowledge to be contained in the retransmission message.

9. An agent system comprising a plurality of facilitating agent apparatuses for propagating knowledge among the facilitating agent apparatuses, each agent comprising:

a message transmission/receiving section for transmitting/receiving a message to/from another agent apparatus;

a meta-knowledge storing section for accumulating meta-knowledge; and

a message processing section for converting a received message based on the meta-knowledge, so as to create a retransmission message for transmitting a content of the received message to another agent apparatus,

wherein the message processing section creates the retransmission message only when receiving a received message containing a predetermined range of knowledge.

10. An agent system comprising a plurality of facilitating agent apparatuses for propagating knowledge among the facilitating agent apparatuses, each agent comprising:

a message transmission/receiving section for transmitting/receiving a message to/from another agent apparatus;

a meta-knowledge storing section for accumulating meta-knowledge;

a message processing section for converting a received message based on the meta-knowledge, so as to create a retransmission message for transmitting a content of the received message to another agent apparatus;

a knowledge storing section for storing the knowledge of the facilitating agent apparatus; and

an own-knowledge transmission message creating section for creating a message for transmitting knowledge stored in the knowledge storing section to another facilitating agent apparatus.