Agents in computer-assisted collaborative design

For researchers working at the boundary between artificial intelligence and engineering design, the notion of “agents” working in a collaborative manner to assist the design effort is not new. What therefore is the new emerging discipline of “intelligent software agents” and how do agents in that discipline differ from our contemporary notion of computational design agents? Do the differences, if any, help advance computer-assisted collaborative design? Furthermore, what challenges does the intelligent agent approach pose the computer-assisted design research community? This paper attempts to answer these questions by briefly reviewing agents research, emphasizing its potential applications in the architecture, engineering and construction industry in general and engineering design in particular. We argue that the agent-based approach provides a useful metaphor for reasoning about design systems, as well as contributing new tools and techniques for facilitating the collaborative design process. Finally, with two examples from construction supply chain provisioning and building design, we demonstrate some of the advantages that an agent-based approach brings to computer-assisted design, and highlight the main challenges posed to the design community by the approach.