Abstract
Precise specification of resources is important in activity and agent coordination. As the scarcity or abundance of resources can make a considerable difference in how to best coordinate the tasks and actions. That being the case, we propose the use of a resource model. We observe that past work on resource modeling does not meet our needs, as the models tend to be either too informal (as in management resource modeling) to support definitive analysis, or too narrow in scope (as in the case of operating system resource modeling) to support specification of the diverse tasks we have in mind.
In this paper we introduce a general approach and some key concepts in a resource modeling and management system that we have developed. We also describe two experiences we have had in applying our resource system. In one case we have added resource specifications to a process program. In another case we used resource specifications to augment a multiagent scheduling system. In both cases, the result was far greater clarity and precision in the process and agent coordination specifications, and validation of the effectiveness of our resource modeling and management approaches.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
G. Booch. Object-Oriented Design with Applications. The Benjamin/Commings Publishing Company, Inc., 1994.
C. Fernström. PROCESS WEAVER: Adding process support to UNIX. In The Second International Conference on the Software Process, pages 12–26, 1993.
H. M. Deitel. An Introduction to Operating Systems. Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1984.
G. Canals, N. Boudjlida, J.-C. Derniame, C. Godart, and J. Lonchamp. ALF: A framework for building process-centered software engineering environments. In A. Finkelstein, J. Kramer, and B. Nuseibeh, editors, Software Process Modelling and Technology, pages 153–185. Research Studies Press, Ltd., Taunton, Somerset, England, 1994.
G. Junkermann, B. Peuschel, W. Schäfer, and S. Wolf. MERLIN: Supporting cooperation in software development through a knowledge-based environment. In A. Finkelstein, J. Kramer, and B. Nuseibeh, editors, Software Process Modelling and Technology, pages 103–129. Research Studies Press, Ltd., Taunton, Somerset, England, 1994.
M. Gruninger and M. S. Fox. An Activity Ontology for Enterprise Modelling. Submitted to AAAI-94, Dept. of Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, 1994.
D. Harel, H. Lachover, A. Naamad, A. Pnueli, M. Politi, R. Sherman, A. Shtull-Trauring, and M. Trakhtenbrot. STATEMATE: A working environment for the development of complex reactive systems. IEEE Trans. on Software Engineering, 16(4):403–414, April 1990.
D. Jensen, Y. Dong, B. S. Lerner, E. K. McCall, L. J. Osterweil, J. Stanley M. Sutton, and A. Wise. Coordinating agent activities in knowledge discovery processes. In Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Work Activies, Coordination, and Collaboration (WACC’ 99), San Francisco, February 1999.
J. Estublier, S. Dami, and A. Amiour. APEL: A graphical yet executable formalism for process modelling. In Automated Software Engineering, March 1997.
K. L. Myers and D. E. Wilkins. The Act Formalism. Working document: Version 2.2, SRI International, Artificial Intelligence Center, September 25, 1997. http://www.ai.sri.com/ act/act-spec.ps.
H. Rombach and M. Verlage. How to assess a software process modeling formalism from a project member’s point of view. In The Second International Conference on the Software Process, pages 147–159, 1993.
S. F. Smith and M. A. Becker. An Ontology for Constructing Scheduling Systems. In Working Notes from 1997 AAAI Spring Symposium on Ontological Engineering, Stanford, CA, March 1997.
X. Song and L. J. Osterweil. Engineering Software Design Processes to Guide Process Execution. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 24(9):759–775, 1998.
R. Vincent, B. Horling, T. Wagner, and V. Lesser. Survivability Simulator for Multi-Agent Adaptive Coordination. Proceedings of International Conference on Web-Based Modeling and Simulation, 30(1):114–119, 1998.
J. Waldo. Jini Architecture Overview. Sun Microsystems, Inc., 901 San Antonio Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303, 1998. http://www.javasoft.com/products/jini/index.html.
D. E. Wilkins. Using the SIPE-2 Planning System: A Manual for Version 4–17. SRI International Artificial Intelligence Center, Menlo Park, CA, October 1997.
A. Wise. Little-JIL 1.0 Language Report. Technical report 98-24, Department of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 1998.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Podorozhny, R.M., Lerner, B.S., Osterweil, L.J. (1999). Modeling Resources for Activity Coordination and Scheduling. In: Ciancarini, P., Wolf, A.L. (eds) Coordinatio Languages and Models. COORDINATION 1999. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1594. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48919-3_22
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48919-3_22
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-65836-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48919-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive