D- DISCUSSION

---

Meeting items (Numbers according to the Agenda)

• 3. -- It has been communicated to all the presents, the message from the Argentinian partner (Guillermo Simari from Universidad Nacianal del Sur) apologizing for not being present.
• 4. -- All the objectives of the X-MAS project as well as ALFA program have been presented. All figures concerning the Budget have been transmitted. It is known that, although the Project Contract has already been signed the money has not yet arrived. All partners also know that there is a pourcentage of self funding in this project as well as there is a significant parcel to be covered by CNPq.
  -- At the end of the project we have to issue a final report where application domains for multi-agent systems are clearly identified and systems specifications to tackle those problems are produced. It has been stressed out that all the three European partners (FEUP, QMWC, UTC) have Brasilien PhD students involved in research close to X-MAS objectives.
• 5. -- All partners present made a presentation of their own research groups. It has been stressed out that all the three European partners (FEUP, QMWC, UTC) have Brasilien PhD students involved in research close to X-MAS objectives. All partners have already projects in different aspects of M.A.S.
• 6. -- FEUP told about previous connections with european companies using MAS for electricity distribution networks management. UTC told about IIIA (Institut International d'Intelligence Artificielle) which is sponsored by the industry. There are potential interested companies (like Solvay/B) on MAS application on Corporate Knowledge organization. UTC has an Agent Simulation platform for big agents distributed over different machines. The platform is called OSACA. UFRGS already had some preliminary contacts with RIOCEL a "paper manufacture"(?) company. They would be interested in MAS for monitoring and controling environmental problems. UFRGS also have contacts with the shoe industry. CEFET, through TECPAR, is already working together with PetroBras, developing Expert Systems for corrosion control in the plant (MONITOR). CEFET is indeed interested in applying R&D results (namely concerning MAS) in industry.
• 7. -- CEFET made a presentation on the current status of their application to PetroBras: Controlling corrosion in the Refinary. Although everybody agreed that the described framework could be of potential interest for MAS application, it was stressed out that there is an urgent need for a better definition of the problem, isolating what is essential, what are the requirements, functionalities, different agents, needed interactions and cooperative situations.
  -- UTC was very critical about the possibility of having a decentralized solution for controling a refinary due to potential danger.
• 8. -- QMWC after introducing the DAI group also presented several projects they are involved in, concerning MAS techniques. One project aims at using intelligent agents to manage business processes at British Telecom where, it seems, the workflow is very rigid and very "human intensive". They are using CORBA as a distributed platform for communications. They are also interested (like FEUP) in Negotiation protocols and rationality. The second application is Intelligent agents for Patient Health Care in the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (?). The environment is highly distributed and MAS is of great help.
• 9. -- All partners made some reflexions about the Petrobras case, about what really should be distributed (other than just data), about the important functionalities needed, what agents would be involved and if they are (would be) heterogeneous. Again there is a lack of problem definition. We have to see clear about distributed Data, Expertise, Control and Resources in this application.
• 10.-- FEUP presented a possible application that could be also of interest in L.A., which is a MAS for advising on financial products that can be selected for investment by the bank costumer. Agents here could negotiate among themselves (having a certain degree of autonomy as well as their own specific goals -- to be selected for investment) in order to arrive at the best composition of a selected "portfollio". Another Agent will represent more global bank interests and would "supervise" the final offer.
• 11.--FEUP also presented a going on project on applying MAS for resources management in the field of Civil Construction companies. The idea is to represent in the system all the available knowledge about all entities involved (machinery, personel,...) and make them negotiate according to their specific conditions in order to ask to every request that has been made to the company. Strategies to arrive at the best agent coalition able to execute the needed task have also been presented.
• 12.--Although some disparities have been noticed about the common understanding of some concepts (Agent, MAS, cooperation,...) we didn't progress too much on the vocabulary homogeneization. It has been said that this could take place through email.
• 13.--Demos on Multi-Agent Systems have been shown. They included UPShell for generating Cooperating Expert Systems. A scenario on Electricity Distribution Network has been demonstrated. A Distributed ATMS (Assumption-based Truth Maintenance System) to maintain the coherence of dynamically changing knowledge in a distributed environment has also been demonstrated. It was said that we are currently trying to apply this tool to GIS (Geographical Information Systems) type of problems. Also a simulation on Conflict Resolution among agents involved in the control of a flexible manufacturing cell was shown. Some conversations took place about how we are using MAS for simulating organizations interaction in the market. A Mobile Robot also controled by a MAS architecture has been shown.
• 14.--As a consequence of the discussion it was agreed that:
  

   
   
     1- The main application domain to be explored by X-MAS project could be the control
          (partial) of the petrobras refinary. It was not clear if this control will have
          to do only with corrosion or will be of a broader scope.
  
     
    2- CEFET has to do a special effort to describe more precisely the application,
       providing the application requirements, characterizing the application according
          to possible distribution of data, expertise and control, needed
          functionalities, etc. 
  
   
      3- UFRGS will supply X-MAS with a good description of the Environment Control
          application (RIOCEL) on same lines as above.
   
      4- Other possible applications have been mentioned, like the organization of
          technical information at TECPAR and MAS for an University Hospital in Porto
          Alegre. These domains could be explored in order to see if they have
          potentialities for MAS application.
       5- UTC will provide more information to X-MAS partners, on the platform OSACA.
       6- QMWC UTC and FEUP will wait for application descriptions in order to study 
          possible solutions.
       7- Future meetings as well as workshops have been agreed to take place in
          Curitiba and, in principle, in Porto Alegre.