A Formal Approach for Designing Distributed Expert Problem-Solving Systems

In this paper, we consider the problem of generating effective information-gathering, communication, and decision-making (ICD) strategies for a distributed expert problem-solving (DEPS) system. We focus on the special case of a dual-processor DEPS system and present a decision-theoretic model that enables the characterization of feasible, efficient, and optimal ICD strategies. In view of the tremendous amount of computing needed to generate optimal strategies for problems of practical size, we develop useful heuristic procedures for constructing high-quality efficient ICD strategies. We illustrate the use of the model and the solution procedure through an example.