S.M. Deen - Böcker

This volume contains the 17 research papers presented at the first International Working Conference on Co-operating Knowledge Based Systems, held at the University of Keele. This conference aimed at bringing together the distributed database (DDB) and distributed AI (DAI) experts, from both academia and industry, to discuss the issues of the next generation of knowledge based systems, namely Co-operating Knowledge Based Systems (CKBS). The papers are grouped under six headings: co-operation framework - DB perspectives; co-operation framework - AI perspectives; conflict resolution strategy; knowledge revision; multi-agent development models; interaction in data/knowledge bases.

Low-volume high-variety products like personalized cars or customized engines will be the key issues for manufacturing in the 21st century. The necessary control technology is based on the concept of holons, which are the units of production and behave as autonomous and cooperative agents, providing flexibility, adaptability, agility, and dynamic reconfigurability. This book presents the latest research results in agent-based manufacturing as carried out by researchers in academia and industry within the international "Holonic Manufacturing Systems" project. As this project was driven by industry, the results presented here are of vital interest not just to researchers in agent technologies or distributed artificial intelligence, but also to engineers and professionals in industry who have to respond to rapid changes and new demands in production.