在以服務為導向之代理人架構中，代理人可透過中間代理人（Middle Agent）配對服務，而服務可以代理人服務或網路服務兩種形式遞送。為了搜尋服務，必須在中間代理人上開發配對引擎。本論文提出一個以可能性派翠網路（Possibilistic Petri Nets，PPN）為基礎之服務搜尋機制，作為中間代理人之配對方法。本系統使用以下特性建造配對機制：利用possibilistic transitions代表一個需求或服務，input places代表服務條件，而necessity則代表服務的匹配程度，並以此為理論基礎，開發出中間代理人，展現服務之部份配對（partial match）能力。此外，本論文亦提出一個將代理人服務與網路服務整合之方法，使網路服務亦能納入此中間代理人之搜尋空間。 In the service-oriented framework with agent, agents make requests for services through middle agents and services can be delivered by either agent services or web services. In order to discover services, a matching engine should be developed in middle agent. In this paper, a PPN-based (Possibilistic Petri Nets) matchmaking mechanism is proposed as a matching methodology in middle agent. We use the following features to build up the matchmaking mechanism: possibilistic transitions to represent a service or a request; input places to denote service conditions; and necessity measures to quantify the matching levels that an agent can provide the service for a request. A matching engine based on PPN has also been developed in middle agent to demonstrate service discovery capability. We also proposed a methodology that integrated the agent framework with Web Service platform.
