An Agent-based Infrastructure for Enterprise Integration

Jackal is a Java-based tool for communication using the KQML agent communication language. Some features that make it extremely valuable to agent development are its conversation management facilities, flexible, blackboard style interface and ease of integration. Jackal has been developed in support of an investigation of the use of agents in enterprise-wide integration of planning and execution for manufacturing. This paper describes Jackal at a surface and design level, and demonstrates its use in a multiagent system that supports intelligent integration of enterprise planning and execution.