Searching for information is an ubiquitous need
in today's data-oriented environments. However, a
request for search often entails the service and cooperation
of tools managing a diversified set of tasks. In this article,
we explore how tools in the form of cooperating agents
can be deployed for information management. We describe
an agent framework called GAME (goal-oriented,
agent-managed environment),
and focus on how GAME agents search cooperatively
for information requested by a user. Cooperative search
entails several issues such as coordinating agent activities,
maintaining transparency to agent heterogeneity, and designing
information formats to be shared among the agents that
require examination. This article analyzes these issues
and describes how they are handled in the GAME
framework. Cooperative search effectively supports collaboration
and information sharing not only among agents in a domain,
but also among GAME agents developed across domains.
We illustrate the application of cooperative search in
task-oriented domains such as Manufacturing and Front Office
showing how GAME promotes intradomain and interdomain
collaboration in a Factory environment.
Information Sharing Based on Local PSO for UAVs Cooperative Search of Moved Targets
