Method and apparatus that improves the technique by which a plurality of agents process information distributed over a network through by way of a contract net protocol

An agent processing system for processing agents, comprising:

• a network;
• and
• a plurality of nodes interconnected via said network, said plurality of nodes being each capable of becoming a remote node or a local node with respect to other nodes,
• at least one of said remote nodes and said local nodes comprising:
• a section configured to input a request;
• a section configured to generate an agent corresponding to the request inputted from said input section;
• a planning section configured to generate a plan which satisfies said request;
• a section configured to determine a reliability of a communication line in the case where an uncertain knowledge is used for generation of said plan by said planning section, wherein the uncertain knowledge is processed by other nodes than the at least one of said remote nodes;
• a selecting section configured to select one of a processing of a movement of the agent and a processing of a contract net protocol in accordance with said reliability;
• and
• an executing section configured to execute the plan after said other nodes process said uncertain knowledge.

An information processing apparatus with a plurality of agents cooperating by information exchange on a network including a plurality of nodes, comprising:

• a planning section configured to generate a plan to be executed by said agents;
• a section configured to judge the reliability of a communication line connecting a node generating said plan and the network in the case where said plan generated includes a plan requiring processing in other nodes;
• a section configured to move the agent for executing said plan to another node in the case where the reliability of said communication line is low;
• a cooperation section configured to request at least one agent of other nodes to execute said plan in the case where said reliability is high;
• and
• a section configured to execute the plan generated.

An information processing method comprising:

• inputting a request;
• generating an agent corresponding to the request inputted at said inputting step;
• planning a plan which satisfies said request;
• determining a reliability of a communication line in the case where an uncertain knowledge is used for said planning step;
• selecting one of a processing of a movement of the agent and a processing of a contract net protocol in accordance with said reliability;
• processing said uncertain knowledge on the basis of the processing selected in said selecting step;
• and
• executing the plan after said processing step processes said uncertain knowledge.

A computer-readable memory comprising:

• a first instruction section configured to cause a computer to input a request;
• a second instruction section configured to cause a computer to generate an agent corresponding to the request;
• a third instruction section configured to cause a computer to generate a plan which satisfies said request;
• a fourth instruction section configured to cause a computer to determine a reliability of a communication line in the case where an uncertain knowledge is used for said third instruction section, wherein the uncertain knowledge is processed by other nodes than the node containing the computer readable memory;
• a fifth instruction section configured to cause a computer to select one of a processing of a movement of the agent and a processing based on a contract net protocol in accordance with said reliability;
• and
• a sixth instruction section configured to cause a computer to execute the plan after the processing of said uncertain knowledge by said other nodes.

An information processing apparatus in which information distributed over a network is processed by an agent, the apparatus comprising:

• a planning section configured to generate a plan of the agent which is to be executed by the agent based on a user input request;
• a determination section configured to determine a reliability of a communication line connected between the apparatus and the network when said plan includes uncertain knowledge, wherein the uncertain knowledge is processed by other nodes than the information processing apparatus;
• an uncertain knowledge processing section configured to selectively perform one of a movement of the agent and a contract net protocol based on the reliability of the communication line;
• and
• an execution section configured to execute the plan after said uncertain knowledge processing section performs one of the movement of the agent and the contract net protocol.