Stanislaw Ambroszkiewicz, Olaf Matyja, and Wojciech Penczek

Team Formation in a Distributed Environment:
the idea and algorithms

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Abstract

A process of team formation by autonomous agents in a distributed environment is presented. Since the environment is distributed, there are serious problems with communication and consistent decision making inside a team. To deal with these problems, the standard technique of token passing in a computer network is applied. The passing cycle of the token serves as the communication route, assures consistent decision making inside the team maintaining its organisational integrity, and is a component of the plan of the co-operative work performed by a completed team. Two algorithms for team formation are given. The first one is based on simple BDI-agents that still can be viewed as reactive agents although augmented with Belief, Desire, and Intentions. The second one is based on sophisticated BDI-agents. Moreover, the algorithm based on purely reactive agents, which is an adaptation of the static routing algorithm in computer networks, is constructed in order to compare its performance with performances of the team formation algorithms.

Key words: distributed computer networks, team formation, co-operation mechanisms, BDI-agent.