Agent-based Generic Scheduling Engine Builder

The key innovation proposed in this Phase II effort is a set of tools and framework that enforces a new powerful approach to developing agent-based scheduling engines by designing the basic components, identifying agents, and designing interaction protocols and behavior to meet the system requirement. We propose to extend Generic Scheduling Engine Builder (GenSEB) tool developed in the Phase I effort which allows the end users to design scheduling components. The enhanced GenSEB tool will extend the capability by allowing the users to design FIPA standard motivated Agent Interaction Protocols (AIPs). By using GenSEB, an end user can graphically associate AIPs with the scheduling algorithms to design the core of the schedule engine. GenSEB also provides a framework for composing AIPs to design complex multi-agent based problem solving process. GenSEB generated elements are the essential building blocks, which can be plugged into a Generic Scheduling Engine (GSE) framework to rapidly develop flexible scheduling engines with extended life cycle. The GSE can be installed as a persistent engine that supports dynamic scheduling. The GSE can also be used as a (Monte Carlo) simulation tool to evaluate core of the engines by comparing the quality of generated schedules against the schedule objectives.