Virtual Enterprise Formation Supported by Agents and Web Services

Abstract

This chapter describes the use of software agents and Web Services to support the formation of Virtual Enterprises. The partners of a Virtual Enterprise are represented as software agents. The AGORA multi-agent architecture is used. The focus of this chapter is on the description of the services provided by each partner and the partner selection process. The concept of Agent Interaction Protocols is used to manage the interactions during the formation of the Virtual Enterprise. An implementation of the ideas and examples from industrial case studies are used for the validation of the approach and discussions. The use of Semantic Web technology and Web Services with multi-agent systems is discussed as the future directions for this work.