ADEA -A multiagent system for DEsign Activity Analysis

Abstract

This paper propose a multi-agent system, called ADEA (Agents-based DEsign Activity Analysis), to validate some properties of a theory for design activity reasoning. In this theory, two axioms are proposed to govern design activity. Axiom 1 deals with relations between the descriptors of an artefact: means and effects. Axiom 2 deals with actors and their roles in design activity. From the two defined axioms, some properties of the design activity theoretical model have been shown. ADEA's platform design lays explicitly on the properties drawn from the proposed design activity theory. The originality of ADEA is the reactive behaviour of autonomous and distributed agents following the evolution of the design space. Each agent has a role relatively to the proposed theory and is both cognitive and reactive. ADEA permits to show the properties of design activity as coevolution of the problem and solution, emergence of design parameters, rules and real resulting parameters, temporal continuity of design activity, knowledge computing and reactivity. © Springer-Verlag London 2013.