Using a Distributed Frame System to Implement Distributed Problem Solvers

摘要

The paper presents some preliminary results and ideas from a research projectdealing with the implementation of distributed problem-solving systems. The paper discusses the possibility of implementing these systems using a distributed object system. The basic approach is to use the object-oriented paradigm to hide the physical environment: the universe of objects is distributed across the network of machines involved in the problem-solving process, allowing different problem solvers to access the same underlying knowledge about the problem without actually having to know about the distribution itself. The problem-solving agents, however, may still communicate with each other by sending explicit messages, acknowledging the distributed nature of the environment if necessary. The software tools created and used in the research are presented: they are BEEF, a compact and powerful frame system, and BONE, its extension which allows frame-to-frame communication between frames in separate physical machines. The implementations of these systems are described. (Copyright (c) 1990 Ora Lassila and Seppo Torma.)