System and method for interfacing multi-agent system

A system for allowing a user to interact with a multi-agent distributed control system, the system comprising:

• a computerized terminal on which is displayed a user interface, wherein the user interface includes
• a first window displaying a workflow among a first plurality of agents of the multi-agent system wherein the workflow shows agents visually linked with respect to planning, commitment or execution of work undertaken by the agents in effecting the distributed control
• wherein the user interface includes the second window displaying additional information, and wherein the displaying of information in the first and second windows is coordinated so that, when a user input is received in relation to certain information displayed in one of the windows, at least some of the information displayed in the other of the windows is varied;
• wherein the user interface displays each of a second window capable of displaying a first list of messages, a third window capable of displaying work units, and a fourth window capable of displaying message content, and
• wherein when the user input is a selection of one of the messages listed on the second window, the third window then displays at least one work unit corresponding to the selected message, the fourth window displays corresponding content of the selected message, and the first window displays at least a portion of a workflow of the at least one work unit.

A system for allowing a user to interact with a multi-agent distributed control system, the system comprising:

• a computerized terminal on which is displayed a user interface, wherein the user interface includes
• a first window displaying a workflow among a first plurality of agents of the multi-agent system wherein the workflow shows agents visually linked with respect to planning, commitment or execution of work undertaken by the agents in effecting the distributed control;
• wherein the user interface is capable of displaying, in at least one of the first window and a second window, statistical information regarding amounts of communication occurring among the first plurality of agents;
• wherein the amounts of communication are calculated based upon one of sums of numbers of messages and sums of bytes communicated per unit time, and wherein the statistical information can be limited to a subset of statistical information corresponding to at least one of an agent subset, a message subset and a time period.

A method of interacting with a multi-agent distributed control system employing a plurality of controllers on which are programmed a plurality of agents, the controllers being coupled by a network, the method comprising:

• providing a computer program capable of operating a user interface, wherein the computer program is in communication with the agents via the network;
• and
• displaying agent-related information on the user interface by way of a plurality of windows, wherein within a first of the windows is further displayed a workflow among at least some of the agents wherein the workflow shows agents visually linked with respect to planning, commitment or execution of work undertaken by the agents in effecting the distributed control, and within a second of the windows is further displayed at least one of a plurality of messages communicated among at least some of the agents, a work unit requested by at least one of the agents, and message content associated with at least one of the messages;
• wherein the agent-related information displayed on the user interface is at least one of information concerning current operation of the agents and information concerning past operation of the agent, wherein when the agent-related information concerns past operation of the agents, the agent-related information is obtained from a storage device that has recorded the information during the past operation go the agents.