Workflow Management Principles for Interactions Between Petri Net-Based Agents

Software agents can be considered as similar to humans interacting with one another to complete a complex activity or, in an organisational setting, a workflow. More so, agents can view their own behaviour as workflows, which can require other resources in order to be executed. This paper examines and describes an approach to consider agent behaviour as workflows and agents as both workflow engines and workflow resources. This approach can achieve a flexible and more uniform type of agent interaction. The paper describes the approach as a design pattern and blueprint. It also presents a first technical proof-of-concept. The general approach, concepts and prototype are based on and realised with reference Petri nets. This enables a clear transition between the conceptual approach and the practical realisation.