Ontology development for agent-based collaborative design

Domain ontologies facilitate sharing and re-use of data and knowledge between distributed collaborating systems. A major problem in the design and application of intelligent systems is to capture and understand: the data and information model that describes the domain; the various levels of knowledge associated with problem solving; and the patterns of interaction, information and data flow in the problem solving space. This paper reports the development of an ontology for agent-based collaborative design of portal structures, using knowledge acquisition techniques and tools. It illustrates the application of the ontology in the development of a prototype multi-agent systems. The study shows that a common ontology facilitates interaction and negotiation between agents and other distributed systems. The paper discusses the findings from the knowledge acquisition, their implications in the design and implementation of multi-agent systems, and gives recommendations on developing agent-based systems for collaborative design and decision-support in the construction sector.