COpyright © IFAC Artificial Intelligence In Agnculture,

Makuhan, Chiba, Japan, 1998

An Intelligent Framework for Agriculture System

Based on the Heuristic Leading Mechanism

Li Haiying Xu Yunfei Tu Renshou Xiong Fanlun

Department of Automation, The Institute of Intelligent Machines,
University of Science & Technology of China Academia Sinica
P.O. Box 4 P.O. Box I 130
Hefei,Anhui,230027 Hefei, Anhui, 23003 I
P.R.China P.R.China

Abstract: In this paper, An Intelligent Framework with heuristic leading mechanism for agriculture
system will be elaborated. We propose a way of establishing main control agent to organize agriculture
resource agents and solve practical problems by heuristic leading mechanism. Moreover, the intelligent
framework based on agents can effectively resolve the semi-structured ,unstructured problems by way
such as task-sharing and communication cooperation. CopYrlght © 19981FAC

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Multi-Agent, Leading Agent, Intelligent Framework.

1. INTRODUCTION
In recent years. based on the conception of multi-agent, DAI
(Distribute Artificial Intelligent) domain proposed a new
way. which breaks through the limitations of the traditional
methods for knowledge acquIsitIOn ,knowledge
representation and knowledge reasoning and becomes a new
focal point of Artificial Intelligence.
Now. we have applied this technology into the agriculture
intelligent system to solve large scale complex problem. In
order to establish a new way that computer fulfills the work
of the experts without knowledge representation language,
we use the online interaction based on the leading
mechanism .
First. we construct a framework to combine agents with
different qualities and architectures ,Secondly, we create a
flexible harmonious and cooperative environment through
agents' communication . In this environment, agents with
different qualities and architectures can be used to construct
models for intelligent system so as to be suitable for
different problem solving.
In the following sections. we will introduce the conception
and quality of agent .At the mean time, we will explain how
the intelligent framework of agriculture system solves
problem and how the heuristic leading mechanism works .
2. AGENT PROPERTY
In our framework , as the construction unit of an intelligent
simulation system, Agent was defined as the following
characteristics .
*Autonomy. Agent possess ability to solve the sub-problems
in the fixable problem domain , to select freely the
communication and the cooperation strategy for itself and to
realize its function according to its own knowledge .
*Cooperation. Agents can contact each other through
communication network and solve problems (assigned by
the main control agent) with other agents.
*Decomposition and Combination. An agent can be
decomposed to a set of smaller agents with different qualities
and architectures , and can also be a part of other group
agent.
*Adaptability. Intelligent agent can make a response against
the environment information (e.g. , the sudden event), and
dynamically collect the information to adjust its functions
during the performing procedure.
*Extension of Definition. Intelligent agent has
characteristics of different qualities and architectures in
wider range. It can be defined as a set of multiple
components. Each component may represent class ,
attribute method reasoning mechanism
communication model and the corresponding knowledge .
Accompanied with different content and comprehension , the
various definition domains result in the diversity of
description, the inconsistency in problem solving and the
reliability of cooperation .
3. THE FRAMEWORK FOR AGRICULTURE
SYSTEM
The intelligent framework for agriculture system is a general
model which imitates human thinking activities. It is

This work IS sponsored by Nati onal Science Foundation of China and China "863'" ProJect.

37
agent, agent generator , solution agent, coordination
Main Control agent
Leading Agent
Agent Generator Solution Agent n
t Resource Agent
Fig. I The principle figure of general framework for agriculture system
3. J l\-1u;" Colftrol Agent
The main control agent .which proceeds to control the whole
procedure of problem solving ( Fig. I), meets its need by
communication through the information blackboard structure.
The information blackboard of main control agent uses the
receive-send member function to transfer information and
connect with the control un it of related agent to make up the
communication network in order to realize the function of
controlling the whole procedure of sequentially distributed
resolution .
The prinCIple figure demonstrates that at first main control
agent performs human-machine interaction through leading
agent. according to the task decomposition, demands agent
generator to generate solution agents which can solve the
corresponding subtasks. and then establishes the problem
solving flow diagram constructed by agents(as a function
unit). pushes forward the problem solving process by
coordination agent according to resolution sequence
(prescribed in the tlow diagram). After performing the
relevant subtasks. the corresponding agents return to main
control agent. update the blackboard information and push
forn'ard the performance. Finally, function agent is
generated and is delivered to user by main control agent.
3.2 Resource Age",
In the past, the limitation of Expert System with the same
qualities and architectures have embodied the singularity of
knowledge representation and knowledge reasoning. In order
to realize an aggregation of agents with different qualities
and architectures. we store the related reasoning mechanism
and the knowledge with different qualities and descriptions,
which meet the need of problem solving. Here the intention
of the resource includes the conception of extensive
knowledge (such as primary knowledge, description
knowledge, control knowledge, procedure knowledge and
experiences of low and deep hierarchy etc.). The
38
a ent and function agent.
description of knowledge can freely use various
representation ways such as rules, frameworks, cases, or
even graph and sounds etc. , to perform the reflection.
......
t'
..... ...
Problem Reasoning
Analysis ~nowledge
Process
Diagrams Base
Base
.... ....
Fig. 2 The extensive resources managed by Resource Agent
Moreover, resource agent manages various kinds of
resources in resource agent by using the object-oriented
method. In the past, all kinds of problem solving resources
are stored respectively in knowledge base, data base,
model base and method base etc. But now, we cluster all
kinds of resources according to their objects and use the
incorporated ways to take the unified management.
The resource agent manages the extensive aggregation of
agents(see Fig. 2). It manages the problem analysis process
diagram set (PAPDS) and agent set as well as other
common resources such as models, methods, data,
knowledge and corresponding reasoning engines.
After user raises some problems, leading agent extracts the
corresponding problem solving flow diagram from the
PAPDS and acquires knowledge through human-machine
interaction. Agent set in the Fig.2 includes solution agents
and function agents, which are both agents that can solve
some problems. The management of resources need to
establish an index table of all the agents, mark their
 rresponding index number, name,
capabIlity and Kesource agent contacts wnn malO control agent tnrougn
C~ated infonnation, describe the content of its communication and provides knowledge and reasoning
r~aracteristics, action , activities and task, and the mechanism to generate the special agent according to the
~orresponding searching match mechanism . In addition, the concrete problem.
problem about ununique match has to be solved, that is, 3.3 Leading Agent
when some resources can be used to solve the same problem, The leading agent included I/O agent, analysis agent and
it need the evaluation function to detennine how to utilize decomposition agent. The construction figure of its
the resources . framework is shown in Fig.3.

Main Control Agent

:··········· ·················· ···· ·········· ····· 1 ···· ........ ......... ....... ........ ..... ... :
~ Leading Agent :

LJ s~r o Analysis Agent Decomposition Agent IAgent Generator I

~
: 1 :
~ . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. ....... . . . ... ..................... ..... . ...:

Resource Agent I
Fig.3 The Principle figure of Leading Agent

* I/O Agent
The user interface presented in Fig. 3 is implemented by I/O
group agent takes the following steps to solve the task
prescribed by the resolution tactics:
agent. 1/0 agent, which receives or sends related information (1) decompose the task according to the functions ;
and realizes the function of interaction between system and (2) issue the bid infonnation on the blackboard and receive
its environment. is a set of agents realizing the functions the feedback information about the bid;
such as input, output and interaction etc. It can provide the (3) assign the sub-tasks, incessantly coordinate the conflicts
graphical change of the problem solving procedure, I/O and modify them;
infonnation between user and computer and the effective (4)generate the solution agents which can solve the
operating management of the interface. It builds intelligent corresponding sub-tasks.
interface between human and machine to make user take part
in the problem solving process and necessarily intervene It is necessary to emphasize that both the decomposition and
some intelligent activities (such as the analysis and the assignment of task are not realized at one time , but
decomposition for task cooperation, the establishment of the during the problem solving process, they are dynamically
problem solving flow diagram , the intervention to the generated in the transmission of task perfonnance from the
problem solving process and the removement of conflict problem solving state in order to progressively and carefully
etc .) decompose the task through the alternation between
decomposition and assignment, and at last dynamically
* Analysis Agent
It analyses the user' s problem, extracts the corresponding
generate the problem solving flow diagram with lower
abstract level.
problem solving tlow diagram from the PAPDS, and
proposes how to solve the problems. It demands user to The purpose of leading agent is that at first it acquires
input the corresponding information and then acquires knowledge through human-machine interaction according to
knowledge through human-machine interaction. the problem solving flow diagram . Then computer
automatically generates knowledge base based on the
* Decomposition Agent problem solving tactics and stores it in resource agent. At the
Decomposition agent, a task planner, divides the complex same time, leading agent decomposes the complex task into
task into lots of subtasks. Intelligent system based on multi- many sub-tasks and delivers them to agent generator.
agent use the task-sharing way to realize cooperative
resolution according to the different abstract hierarchy. The 3.4 Agent Generator & Solution Agent

39
It is known to all that in multi-agent system , an agent is an
intelligent entity which has characteristics such as :
autonomy, coordination and communication ability etc ..
In application . deve lopers usually construct these agents
based on an developed MAPE , MAPS or MACE, because
these env ironment contain AOP languages or other tools for
programmin g specialized agent. But it' s very difficult for
user or non-developers to understand how agent be
implemented and how it works .
Therefore , when designin g this frame work an important
idea of us is to establish an agent generator. It must be task-
oriented and should automatically generate various problem
so lvin g age nts through user-computer interaction . After
expl orin g and analyz mg features of agent, we construct the
general Architecture of so lution agent (see figure4), which
is ge nerated by agent ge nerator .
COlllll1Ulll catlon With Main Contro l Agent
....... - . ........... . . . . . . .. .. ... ............. .. ... . . .. .. .... . . ..... . .. . .. .. .
Input
Ill timn atillll
L
............................. . ..... ·1······ ....................................
C [esource Age nt;)
Fig... The grlll'ral Architecture of Solution
In the FigA, control unit performs the communicative
consultation of main control agent, receives and sends the
blackboard information, analyses the task execution order,
coordinates the performance of reasoning unit, and solves
the sub-problem s us in g knowledge it possesses. Here the
content of reasonmg untt and knowledge unit are provided
by the resource agent.
When aim ing at con crete task, main control agent extracts
knowledge and corresponding reasoning engine from
resource agent as the content of knowledge unit and
reasoning un it, gen erates solution agent and realizes the
goal s by using know ledge with different quality and
architectures to cooperativel y solve the problems.
The solution agent provides the problem solving function of
all kinds of sub-tasks. Based on the extensive conception, it
can use the problem solving methods to describe the
problems. The problem solving models have diversities
(such as expert experience model, case analysis model,
analysis model based on cause and affection, quantity
computation model and quality analysis model etc.). The
resolution of these models can also use various ways such as
reasoning and computation.
3.5 Coordination Agent
The general framework (see Fig. I) for intelligent system
performs the problem solving activies through the way -
task-sharing and communicative cooperation . The concrete
construction for intelligent simulation system is problem-
oriented and solves the problem by distributive cooperation,
through fle xible communication network between related
agents . Each agent can ask other agents with corresponding
capabilities to work cooperatively together through the
communication.
In the multi-agent environment, there are two ways to realize
the whole state construction through the cooperative
problems solving. The one way is to represent the whole
state as the from-top-down task decomposition through
analysis and decomposition , another way is to form it using
the from-bottom-up process of problem solving through the
Information result- sharing. These two kinds of cooperative
environment must accompany with the ununiqueness of the
decomposition and the assignment strategy, and result in
the inconsistency and the selection . The various cooperative
ways generated when multi-agents solve the multiple
strategies, need to pay close attention to solve the various
~ kinds of the formal conflicts (such as goals conflicts,
resources conflicts and result conflicts etc). And in the
cooperative removement of conflicts, we should study
problems such as conflicts recognItion , and
coordination, ' or ' coordination and the assembly
Agent coordination etc.
3.6 Function Agent
Function agent, whose architecture is the same as that in
FigA, has the function to solve user' s problem . When user' s
problem is a special problem that the problem can be solved
by only a solution agent, function agent is just a solution
agent in this condition. Generally speaking, the generation of
function agent is that lots of solution agents solve the
problems through communication and cooperation . It also
extracts knowledge and corresponding reasoning engine
from resource agent as the content of knowledge unit and
reasoning unit.
Moreover, it may not only be directly used by users, but also
be stored in resource agent so that it is unnecessarily
generated again and can be assigned as a special solution
agent for cooperatively solving problems.
40
 diagram ,agent generator generates different size of solution
agents in order of process dispatch. After solution agents
4. PROBLEM SOLVING PROCESS deal with their sub-tasks, the results feedback to main
control agent, update the information on public blackboard
and push forward the solving process. Furthermore, main
User -.J control agent records all of the dynamic information while
I Raise problems executing problem solving processes. These information is
2. Input related mform atlon sent simultaneously to the user through intelligent human-
machine interface (1 /0 agent) so as to get necessary
intervention from the user. Finally, it generates function
agent as the answer to user's problems.
I. Interchange human-machine I/O mformatlOn
2. Upda tc publ ic II1rormatlOn blackboard
5. CONCLUSION

In this paper, mainly aiming at the large scale andl or semi-

1. ,\11<11) le user' s probkm
2 .Construct pro blcm sol vlllg Ilow di agram
3. Ask user to II1put IIIlo rmatlon
4. D) na mlcil ll) o ptllTIl Ze or modify now diagrams
5. Decompose task to some sub-tasks
structured, unstructured problems, we provide a general
resolution model , which has two characteristics:
( I ) Change the traditional way for experts to acquire
knowledge and automatically accomplish this work through
leading agent and human-machine interaction.
( 2 ) Introduce the conception of multi-agent into the
structure framework, generate agents with different qualities
and architectures .

I. Sol ve sub-problem s The partial autonomous action of agent and the potential
2. Gcnerate solutIOn agents action of related agents depend on the support of the flexible
communication and cooperation mechanism , and obtain the
whole optimal resolution in the interaction environment
Coordination Agent
-;",---,--,-,,---,
I between human and machine, through the cooperation and
1.Collperatc coordination of the whole situation .
2 .[valuat<.: result s
3.Sek ct suggcs!lon The developing framework for intelligent system provides a
distributed developing environment, gradually consummates
in the dynamic solving process, establishes the problem
solving model or constructed the problem solving flow
diagram by agents. Finally it realizes the construction of the
problem solving by the cooperation of agents with different
qualities and architectures, and provides the corresponding
y N solution.
We think the future research on the structure of agent
should focus on :
Solve user" s problems 1 Update blackboard ~ Function of interacting between system and
2. Select next problem environment;
A human-machine cooperation environment realizing
Fig. 5 Problem solving process functions such as analysis , decomposition and
How does the main control agent execute in order to control assignment;
and realize problem solvmg flow diagram is illustrated in ~ Task-sharing and synthetic-integration cooperation
Figure 5. The figure indicates that first of all, main control mechanism , based on the problem solving diversity:
agent acquires knowledge through leading agent and ~ The affections that the decomposition and clustering
interaction with the user; uses task planner ( Analysis, process of intelligent agent have on the architecture,
decomposition agent) to build problem solving flow diagram; accompanied with the distribution, transmission ,
and then , according to problem solving sequences inheritance and sharing of its mental state;
determJlled by the problem decomposition flow ~ The affections which the autonomy and the interaction

41
 qualities of an agent have on its communication
mechanism;
~ Management function of various resources.
On the basis of a large number of materials accumulated in
agriculture expert system, we have established a test
framework for the proposed framework. Using the
agriculture plant-protection intelligent system as its
background, we realize the preliminary embryonic form of
the system. The preliminary practice proves the generality
and flexibility of the framework.
REFERENCES
Chu. 1.. K . WII . Z.II . and Pan .Y.H . (1996) A multi-agentsurpported
complltlllg I:nvlronment MACE_lIPE and its application In CAPP
DES - CA PP". I'mc . of the 1996 China Joint Conference on
Atiti clallntcllig.:ncc . pp. 555-558
42
Pal ph. R. and Chi ,K.L. Using Interaction Diagrams for Multi-agent System,
Proc. of the 1997 Pacific-Asian Conference on Expert System. pp.
52-59
Shoham. Y Agent-Oriented Programming( 1993), ArlijiclQ/ lnlelligence,60
pp.51-92
Han .. D.C-H and N. Parameswaran(1995), Multiagent Solving in Tileworld,
Proc. of the 1995 Pacific-Asian Conference on Expert System ,
pp .27-32
Shl. l.S . et.al, A Flexible Architecture for Multiagent System, (1995)
Proceedings of the 1995 Pacific-Asian Conference on Expert
System. pp.33-36
Bond. A.H. and Gasser.L , A Subject-Indexed Bibliography of DAI , IEEE
Trans. on System. Man &Cybernetics Vol.22 , No.6 pp . 1260-1281
LI. L. WII Q.Y and Yang J.. A New System Supporting Agents (1995)
Communication. Proc. of the 1995 Paific-Aslan Conference on
Expert System. pp. 37-41