Alan H. Bond Manufacturing Engineering Program 4173C Engineering 1, In this brief paper, we shall discuss problems and concepts for understanding how expert systems can be thought about, designed and used in organized activity.We first explain some considerations and concepts from Dis-1. Task and problem description, decomposition and allo-2. Interaction and communication 3. Coordination 4. Distributed domain knowledge 5. Organization and agent knowledge tributed Artificial Intelligence, namely, cationWe note the connection with research in the computer support of organized activity.We then outline our recent research in two areas: 2. Horzzonlal cooperat.ion among a team of agents with different specializations, solving a joint problem. Our ideas have arisen in part, from onr st.udy of the design of aircraft in a large organization. We describe an organization as a set of projects. Each project is decomposed into a set of specialized activities or problems carried out by a set of specialized agents. Projects are elaborafed, by searching a space of subproblems. This is done by humans and/or by expert system rules which operate on a problem and generate new subproblems. Problems are also evaluated by humans and/or by rules. Agcnts share a connnon world, but have different views of it. They propose individual actions in their own views, and these are negotiated among the set of agents and jointly committed to. Each commitment is a constraint on the sharcd world heiiig planned.
9OCH29304DOKKK&O8%$01.W