Abstract
This paper proposes and attribute dynamic network model (AND-Model) for supporting the emergent integrated modeling and collaboration, which has been the core concept of our hybrid multi-agent architecture (ANetCoDE). In our model, design agent can dynamically join in, stay, or leave the system during the design process. When a design task is allocated, a design network among agents can emerge from the system. To support the evolving nature of design in a distributed collaborative engineering context, we present a plug-and-play concept for propagating the local design networks towards the global perspective. With the help of this functionality, a local designer could share the knowledge, information or models from the different domains, via remote agents plugged into his/her local domain. Also, the recursive nature of collaborative design process and how the proposed model functions well in the recursive design process are described. Finally, a planar robot arm design problem is illustrated using the proposed framework.
