Preliminary Design on Multi-touch surfaces Managed by Multi-agent Systems

Abstract : This paper presents a software architecture based on two multi-agent systems for supporting the work of experts during the collaborative preliminary design phases of a project. The working sessions involve a multi-touch interactive table and an interactive whiteboard. Moreover, the participants may be helped by personal assistant agents situated on small devices such as tablets. The paper describes the different phases of preliminary design and introduces the functionalities of the system allowed by the different devices and the agents. Then, the organization of the agents in the systems, their role and the objectives of their communication are presented.