A formulation of the collaboration mechanism for integrated abnormal situation management

To better support computer integrated abnormal situation management (ASM), a multiagent system architecture is proposed within which user and function al agents cooperate based on a collaboration mechanism. Each agent particip ating in the collaboration is composed of a local module and a collaboratio n module. Different types of collaboration are systematically analyzed. In particular, interactions among functional agents are represented by an ASM activity diagram and an extended signed digraph (SDG). A prototype operatio n support system for the simulated Tennessee Eastman process is used to ill ustrate the application of the framework and the collaboration mechanism. ( C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.