Fuzzy logic controller design utilizing multiple contending software agents

The concept of fuzzy logic control based on a distributed multi-agent system is described in this paper. It is shown that a system composed of a number of cooperating and contending intelligent agents can perform well in terms of sensing the measured input data and producing output control signals. Each agent's implementation consists of a number of fuzzy logic control rules. Although at each time step, all the agents compete for the control of the system by proposing a possible action, the main controller chooses among the selections based on a number of evaluation criteria. It is through the simultaneous cooperation (to overall control the system) and competition (to take control at a given time), that the system yields convincing results. The effectiveness of the novel methodology is illustrated through the control of a robotic system that keeps an inverted pendulum in balance while being perturbed by a human force. In addition, the proposed methodology is applied to the practical control of a service mobile manipulator interacting with a human. It is shown that fuzzy logic control combined with intelligent multi-agent architecture can yield effective and efficient intelligent controllers. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.