Patent ID: 6915326

Claim:
A multi-agent system in which a plurality of agents cooperate with each other over a distributed node network, comprising: an client node including: an agent generation unit configured to generate an agent in response to a request; a planning unit configured to generate a plan that satisfies the request for the agent; a determination unit configured to determine a reliability of a communication line when an uncertain knowledge is used to generate the plan by the planning unit, wherein the uncertain knowledge is processed by other nodes than the client node; a selecting unit configured to select one of a processing of a movement of the agent and a processing based on a contract net protocol in accordance with the reliability; and an execution unit configured to execute the plan after the processing of the uncertain knowledge by the other nodes, wherein the client node is configured to perform the contract net protocol for an agent that has a task to be processed by another agent on any one of other nodes the contract net protocol broadcasting task information relating to the task, receiving tender information from a plurality of agents on other nodes, broadcasting a tender submission deadline message, determining a successful bidder agent from the plurality of agents on the other nodes, by evaluating the tender information, and wherein the client node requests the successful bidder agent to process the task.