Department of Informatics, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Software Engineering Group
Department of Informatics, University of Fribourg, SwitzerlandSoftware Engineering Group |
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This thesis aims to develop a flexible and extensible workflow automation toolkit by combining multi-agent and rule-based technologies. The rule-based paradigm offers a natural way to codify knowledge and promotes reusability. A multi-agent system provides an extensible, scalable environment for distributed systems. These technologies combined, provide a flexible, extensible and scalable distributed system to support business processes that span multiple organizations and includes a number of actors.
The frameworks chosen are the rule-based system Jess and the open source multi-agent framework JADE. Both are implemented in Java. Jess is a fast rule-based system shell than can contain large numbers of rules. Because rules are interpreted, rules can be updated, deleted and added during run-time. JADE is fully FIPA-standard compliant and has support for platforms with limited resources, such as mobile devices. Since both frameworks are written in Java, almost any modern platform is supported.
This thesis starts with a description of the situation which lead to the demand for a work- flow automation, namely the lack of control and retraceability of processes between the Laboratoire Cantonal de Fribourg and the Hôpital Cantonal de Fribourg. A first solution was provided by MediMAS version 1.0. MediMAS is a multi-agent system. It was developed with scalability and reliability in mind. It does however have the business logic hard coded as agents’ behaviors and thus does not permit to change the comportment while it is running. The next part lays the theoretical foundations needed to improve the MediMAS framework. It discusses software agents in general followed by an introduction to the JADE framework. Next, it deliberates on rule-based systems followed by a discussion on a concrete implementation of a rule-based system shell, Jess. Part three presents the tool kit developed for this thesis. It first discusses how to tool kit can be used on the basis of "the Matrix" example. The Matrix consists of a set of agents that are coordinated by a master agent called "Oracle agent". The master agent uses Jess to decide on its slaves’ actions. The two following Chapters give a detailed explaination of the Jess and JADE integration tool kit. The fourth Chapter of Part three present the application of the Jess and JADE integration tool kit for the MediMAS framework. The integration tool kit is used to handle the alert notification decision making. This thesis closes with a conclusion.
| Patrik Fuhrer |  |
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