An abstract architecture for virtual organizations: The THOMAS approach

Today, the need for architectures and computational models for large-scale open multi-agent systems is considered to be a key issue for the success of agent technology in real-world scenarios. This paper analyzes the significant unsolved problems that must be taken into account in order to develop real, open multi-agent systems. It identifies requirements and related open issues, discusses how some of these requirements have been tackled by current technologies, and explains how the THOMAS architecture is able to give support to these open issues. This paper also describes the THOMAS abstract architecture and computational model for large-scale open multi-agent systems based on a service-oriented approach that specifically addresses the design of virtual organizations. An application example for the management of a travel agency system, which demonstrates the new features of the proposal, is also presented. © 2010 Springer-Verlag London Limited.This work is supported by the Spanish government grants CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 CSD2007-00022, TIN2008-04446 and TIN2009-13839-C03-01 and by the GVA project PROMETEO 2008/051.Argente Villaplana, E.; Botti Navarro, VJ.; Carrascosa Casamayor, C.; Giret Boggino, AS.; Julian Inglada, VJ.; Rebollo Pedruelo, M. (2011). An abstract architecture for virtual organizations: The THOMAS approach. Knowledge and Information Systems. 29(2):379-403. doi:10.1007/s10115-010-0349-1S37940329