Distributed artificial intelligence for multi-agent problem solving and group learning

The advances in information technology have made computer networks ubiquitous. The increasing uses of distributed processing and electronic meeting systems that involve multiple users necessitate the development of some new principles of information system design that consider the distributed, coordinated nature of group problem solving. This paper describes a framework for designing group problem-solving systems based on distributed artificial intelligence. Among the design issues, we find the coordination mechanisms and the learning schemes used to be of particular importance. An implementation example of a network of expert systems is used to illustrate the distributed artificial intelligence approach.