Applying the multi-agent paradigm to reconfigurable hardware: a sensor fusion example

In this paper, we illustrate how the multi-agent paradigm that is so prevalent in today's distributed artificial intelligence software systems can be extended to the design of digital hardware. Partitioning the hardware design space into entities called agents, which are autonomous units of execution that have the capability of interacting with the environment and each other has been made much more attractive by the recent advances in the capabilities of reconfigurable hardware. In a reconfigurable embedded processing environment one possible benefit of the multi-agent approach is the use of a common design methodology for both the hardware and software components of the system. It is also believed that the multi-agent approach can greatly facilitate the flexibility, efficiency, fault tolerance, scalability, and maintainability of the overall system. In this paper we will explore the arguments for applying multi-agent techniques to digital hardware, highlighting how such techniques can be applied using current-generation hardware description languages such as VHDL. Then we examine how hardware multi-agent technology can be applied to an example distributed real-time sensor fusion application.