DESIGN OF A DISTRIBUTED SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE FOR AN INTELLIGENT PLANNING SYSTEM

The paper describes the design of a distributed software architecture for an intelligent planning system based on a process model of cogniti ve systems (PMCS). PMCS is described in terms of its problem-solving b ehaviour and structure, and is illustrated through a simple case study in robotics. In the PMCS autonomous knowledge sources, implementing a component of the functionality, co-operate by message-passing in orde r to maintain a distributed model of the system's environment and to s ynthesise decisions based on the model. Simulation tools developed at the University of Westminster for the rapid prototyping of parallel sy stems have been used to simulate the software architecture based on PM CS. Simulation results for the planning case study are presented in or der to demonstrate the effectiveness of PMCS in solving planning probl ems in a distributed manner.