An approach to modelling collaborative teleoperation

Abstract

This paper presents an approach to modeling collaborative teleoperation architectures. This approach is based on multi-agent system (MAS) and computer supported collaborative work (CSCW) research areas. In fact, a formal and conceptual model of agent (called collaborator agent) intended to design collaborative teleoperation architectures is proposed. This proposed model is based on an approach combining astutely two research areas: MAS and CSCW. In the first area, a formal model of the MAS (Ferber's approach) is used to give us features of the agent. The second area provides us a useful approach of collaboration based on the communication, coordination and production theories. A formal model of the collaboration is proposed and combined astutely with the Ferber's model to provide new collaborative features of the agent The proposed collaborator agent model is defined as a set of four sub-agents (collaboration, communication, coordination and production) supporting full collaborative teleoperation. The proposed collaborator agent formalism is used to achieve the conceptual architecture of the MAS. Finally the MAS architecture is implemented using a JADE (Java Agent Development framework) and some evaluations taking into account execution time, collaboration rate and message entropy are presented and discussed