OMAS—a flexible multi-agent environment for CSCWD

CSCW requires efficient support to distributed teams. Several technologies seem to be good candidates for supporting CSCW among which groupware or agents. Groupware is efficient but rather inflexible, multi-agent systems are more flexible but difficult to implement. OMAS (Open Multi-Agent System) is a multi-agent platform derived from a number of previous research projects and teaching courses. With OMAS we tried to answer the problems of architecture, skill definition, protocol implementation, ontologies, dialog using natural language, and debugging, so as to simplify the work of an application designer. OMAS uses a “plug in” type approach offering a model of generic cognitive agent. Agents are of three types: service, personal assistants and transfer. They are organized as coteries, meaning that each agent sees all messages. Agents have separate ontologies and tasks models. Agents are multi-threaded and can execute several tasks concurrently. Personal assistants have prototype dialogs and vocal interface. OMAS has been designed for supporting CSCWD projects or applications. It can be downloaded from the Internet.