A Security-Aware Metamodel for Multi-Agent Systems (MAS)

This paper adopts a model-based security (MBS) approach to identify security requirements during the early stages of multi-agent system development. Our adopted MBS approach is underpinned by a metamodel independent of any specific methodology. It allows for security considerations to be embedded within any situated agent methodology which then prescribes security considerations within its work products. Using a standard model-driven engineering (MDE) approach, these work products are initially constructed as high abstraction models and then transformed into more precise models until code-specific models can be produced. A multi-agent system case study is used to illustrate the applicability of the proposed security-aware metamodel

Metamodel for personalized adaptation of pedagogical strategies using metacognition in Intelligent Tutoring Systems

The modeling process of metacognitive functions in Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) is a difficult and time-consuming task. In particular when the integration of several metacognitive components, such as self-regulation and metamemory is needed. Metacognition has been used in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve the performance of complex systems such as ITS. However the design ITS with metacognitive capabilities is a complex task due to the number and complexity of processes involved. The modeling process of ITS is in itself a difficult task and often requires experienced designers and programmers, even when using authoring tools. In particular the design of the pedagogical strategies for an ITS is complex and requires the interaction of a number of variables that define it as a dynamic process. This doctoral thesis presents a metamodel for the personalized adaptation of pedagogical strategies integrating metamemory and self-regulation in ITS. The metamodel called MPPSM (Metamodel of Personalized adaptation of Pedagogical Strategies using Metacognition in intelligent tutoring systems) was synthetized from the analysis of 40 metacognitive models and 45 ITS models that exist in the literature. MPPSMhas a conceptual architecture with four levels of modeling according to the standard Meta- Object Facility (MOF) of Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) methodology. MPPSM enables designers to have modeling tools in early stage of software development process to produce more robust ITS that are able to self-regulate their own reasoning and learning processes. In this sense, a concrete syntax composed of a graphic notation called M++ was defined in order to make the MPPSM metamodel more usable. M++ is a Domain-Specific Visual Language (DSVL) for modeling metacognition in ITS. M++ has approximately 20 tools for modeling metacognitive systems with introspective monitoring and meta-level control. MPPSM allows the generation of metacognitive models using M++ in a visual editor named MetaThink. In MPPSM-based models metacognitive components required for monitoring and executive control of the reasoning processes take place in each module of an ITS can be specified. MPPSM-based models represent the cycle of reasoning of an ITS about: (i) failures generated in its own reasoning tasks (e.g. self-regulation); and (ii) anomalies in events that occur in its Long-Term Memory (LTM) (e.g. metamemory). A prototype of ITS called FUNPRO was developed for the validation of the performance of metacognitive mechanism of MPPSM in the process of the personalization of pedagogical strategies regarding to the preferences and profiles of real students. FUNPRO uses self-regulation to monitor and control the processes of reasoning at object-level and metamemory for the adaptation to changes in the constraints of information retrieval tasks from LTM. The major contributions of this work are: (i) the MOF-based metamodel for the personalization of pedagogical strategies using computational metacognition in ITS; (ii) the M++ DSVL for modeling metacognition in ITS; and (iii) the ITS prototype called FUNPRO (FUNdamentos de PROgramación) that aims to provide personalized instruction in the subject of Introduction to Programming. The results given in the experimental tests demonstrate: (i) metacognitive models generated are consistent with the MPPSM metamodel; (ii) positive perceptions of users with respect to the proposed DSVL and it provide preliminary information concerning the quality of the concrete syntax of M++; (iii) in FUNPRO, multi-level pedagogical model enhanced with metacognition allows the dynamic adaptation of the pedagogical strategy according to the profile of each student.Doctorad

Towards the development of agent-based organizations through MDD

Electronic version of an article published as International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools, 22, 2, 2013, DOI 10.1142/S0218213013500024 © World Scientific Publishing Company http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscinet/ijaitVirtual Organizations are a mechanism where agents can demonstrate their social skills since they can work in a cooperative and collaborative way. Nonetheless, the development of organizations using Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) requires extensive experience in different methodologies and platforms. Model-Driven Development (MDD) is a technique for generating application code that is developed from basic models and meta-models using a variety of automatic transformations. This paper presents an approach to develop and deploy organization-oriented Multi-Agent Systems using a model-driven approach. Based on this idea, we introduce a relatively generic agent-based meta-model for a Virtual Organization, which was created by a comprehensive analysis of the organization-oriented methodologies used in MAS. Following the MDD approach, the concepts and relationships obtained were mapped into two different platforms available for MAS development, allowing the validation of our proposal. In this way, the resultant approach can generate Virtual Organization deployments from unified meta-models, facilitating the development process of agent-based software from the user point of view.This work was partially supported by TIN2009-13839-C03-01 and PROMETEO/2008/051 projects of the Spanish government and CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 under grant CSD2007-00022.Agüero, J.; Carrascosa Casamayor, C.; Rebollo Pedruelo, M.; Julian Inglada, VJ. (2013). Towards the development of agent-based organizations through MDD. International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools. 22(2):1-34. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218213013500024S134222Argente, E., Julian, V., & Botti, V. (2006). Multi-Agent System Development Based on Organizations. Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science, 150(3), 55-71. doi:10.1016/j.entcs.2006.03.005Bézivin, J. (2005). On the unification power of models. Software & Systems Modeling, 4(2), 171-188. doi:10.1007/s10270-005-0079-0Bresciani, P., Perini, A., Giorgini, P., Giunchiglia, F., & Mylopoulos, J. (2004). Tropos: An Agent-Oriented Software Development Methodology. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 8(3), 203-236. doi:10.1023/b:agnt.0000018806.20944.efFoster, I., Kesselman, C., & Tuecke, S. (2001). The Anatomy of the Grid: Enabling Scalable Virtual Organizations. The International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications, 15(3), 200-222. doi:10.1177/109434200101500302Hahn, C., Madrigal-Mora, C., & Fischer, K. (2008). A platform-independent metamodel for multiagent systems. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 18(2), 239-266. doi:10.1007/s10458-008-9042-0HORLING, B., & LESSER, V. (2004). A survey of multi-agent organizational paradigms. The Knowledge Engineering Review, 19(4), 281-316. doi:10.1017/s0269888905000317Huhns, M. N., & Singh, M. P. (2005). Service-oriented computing: key concepts and principles. IEEE Internet Computing, 9(1), 75-81. doi:10.1109/mic.2005.21Huhns, M. N., Singh, M. P., Burstein, M., Decker, K., Durfee, E., Finin, T., … Zavala, L. (2005). Research Directions for Service-Oriented Multiagent Systems. IEEE Internet Computing, 9(6), 65-70. doi:10.1109/mic.2005.132Kolp, M., Giorgini, P., & Mylopoulos, J. (2006). Multi-Agent Architectures as Organizational Structures. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 13(1), 3-25. doi:10.1007/s10458-006-5717-6OHTANI, T., CASE, S., AZARMI, N., & THINT, M. (2002). AN INTELLIGENT SYSTEM FOR MANAGING AND UTILIZING INFORMATION RESOURCES OVER THE INTERNET. International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools, 11(01), 117-138. doi:10.1142/s0218213002000800Omicini, A., Ricci, A., & Viroli, M. (2005). RBAC for Organisation and Security in an Agent Coordination Infrastructure. Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science, 128(5), 65-85. doi:10.1016/j.entcs.2004.11.045Papazoglou, M. P., & Georgakopoulos, D. (2003). Introduction. Communications of the ACM, 46(10), 24. doi:10.1145/944217.944233Papazoglou, M. P., Traverso, P., Dustdar, S., & Leymann, F. (2007). Service-Oriented Computing: State of the Art and Research Challenges. Computer, 40(11), 38-45. doi:10.1109/mc.2007.400Selic, B. (2003). The pragmatics of model-driven development. IEEE Software, 20(5), 19-25. doi:10.1109/ms.2003.1231146SKARMEAS, N. P., & CLARK, K. L. (2002). COMPONENT BASED AGENT CONSTRUCTION. International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools, 11(01), 139-163. doi:10.1142/s0218213002000812Zambonelli, F., Jennings, N. R., & Wooldridge, M. (2003). Developing multiagent systems. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, 12(3), 317-370. doi:10.1145/958961.95896

Simplified database forensic investigation using metamodeling approach

Database Forensic Investigation (DBFI) domain is a significant field used to identify, collect, preserve, reconstruct, analyze and document database incidents. However, it is a heterogeneous, complex, and ambiguous domain due to the variety and multidimensional nature of database systems. Numerous specific DBFI models and frameworks have been proposed to solve specific database scenarios but there is a lack of structured and unified frameworks to facilitate managing, sharing and reusing of DBFI tasks and activities. Thus, this research developed a DBFI Metamodel (DBFIM) to structure and organize DBFI domain. A Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) to provide a logical, testable and communicable metamodel was applied in this study. In this methodology, the steps included problem identification, define objectives, design and development, demonstration and evaluation, and communication. The outcome of this study is a DBFIM developed for structuring and organizing DBFI domain knowledge that facilitates the managing, sharing and reusing of DBFI domain knowledge among domain practitioners. DBFIM identifies, recognizes, extracts and matches different DBFI processes, concepts, activities, and tasks from different DBFI models into a developed metamodel, thus, allowing domain practitioners to derive/instantiate solution models easily. The DBFIM was validated using qualitative techniques: comparison against other models; face validity (domain experts); and case study. Comparisons against other models and face validity were applied to ensure completeness, logicalness, and usefulness of DBFIM against other DBFI domain models. Following this, two case studies were selected and implemented to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the DBFIM in the DBFI domain using a DBFIM Prototype (DBFIMP). The results showed that DBFIMP allowed domain practitioners to create their solution models easily based on their requirements

Diseño de organizaciones virtuales ubícuas utilizando desarrollo dirigido por modelos

Hoy en día los avances en la miniaturización de sistemas electrónicos han impulsado el desarrollo de dispositivos o artefactos que incorporan capacidades computacionales y de comunicación. Estos dispositivos pueden proveer de una serie de servicios en diferentes entornos gracias a su tecnología empotrada, como por ejemplo: reconocimiento de personas, localización de usuarios en un entorno, ajuste automático de la temperatura e iluminación de un entorno, etc. Este potencial de procesamiento y comunicación, está permitiendo crear nuevas aplicaciones distribuidas, donde el rol principal no lo tiene el computador personal, sino los diferentes dispositivos empotrados en el entorno: sensores, interfaces, actuadores, teléfonos móviles, etc., Esto ha generado novedosas áreas de aplicación como: Internet de Cosas (Internet of Things), Computación Móvil, Redes de Sensores, Sistemas Ubícuos, Inteligencia Ambiental, etc. Estos avances han conducido al desarrollo de un nuevo paradigma, computación orientada a la interacción, es decir, la computación ocurre a través de los actos de comunicación entre las entidades. Por lo tanto, es lógico pensar que este paradigma requiere, desde un punto de vista de diseño, el desarrollo de aplicaciones en diferentes plataformas de software y de hardware, debido a lo heterogeneo de los sistemas de computación, lenguajes, sistemas operativos, y objetos (dispositivos físicos: sensores, actuadores, interfaces, etc.) dispersos en el entorno. Dicha heterogeneidad presente en los sistemas ubícuos, representa todo un reto a la hora de diseñarlos. La ingeniería de software basada en sistemas multi-agente, en particular, los sistemas multi-agente abiertos (como las Organizaciones Virtuales), tiene la capacidad de abordar los retos al diseñar sistemas ubícuos. A ello hay que unir, que varias metodologías de desarrollo de software han adoptado el enfoque “dirigido por modelos” (model-driven) para realizar el análisis y el diseño del software. Dicho enfoque puede ser adoptado en los sistemas multi-agente, para mejorar el proceso de desarrollo y la calidad del software basado en agentes. Así mismo, el desarrollo dirigido por modelos proporciona un soporte apropiado para abordar este tipo de sistemas, ya que nos permite el uso de modelos como principal elemento abstracto para el diseño del sistema, por medio de la interconexión de un conjunto de componentes visuales. En este trabajo proponemos el desarrollo de sistemas ubícuos utilizando una organización virtual, creando una Organización Virtual Ubícua, la cual es diseñada usando el enfoque de desarrollo dirigido por modelos. De forma más detallada, este trabajo presenta tres propuestas. La primera, presenta un conjunto de meta-modelos para diseñar una Organización Virtual Ubícua, llamado πVOM, que utiliza conceptos generales que se abstraen de las metodologías y de las plataformas de agentes, lo permite diseñar aplicaciones utilizando abstracciones generales de alto nivel, evitando los detalles de implementación de bajo nivel. Así mismo, se presentan dos modelos de transformaciones, que permiten obtener el modelo de implantación de la organización (con los agentes, entidades y dispositivos), por medio de transformaciones semi-automáticas dadas por la metodología model-driven, reduciendo la brecha entre las fases de diseño y de implementación para este tipo de sistema. La segunda propuesta presenta una arquitectura de implantación que define una estructura de capas funcionales basada en servicios, que soporta la interacción de las entidades de la organización virtual. La arquitectura de implantación permite la interoperabilidad de diferentes entidades, plataformas de software y hardware, proporcionando a los miembros de la organización virtual la capacidad de administrar y controlar los dispositivos del entorno (del sistema ubícuo). La tercera propuesta presenta una plataforma de ejecución de agentes empotrados llamada Andromeda, que permite ejecutar agentes empotrados sobre sistema operativo Android que cumplen con el modelo de agente de πVOM. Los agentes en Andromeda pueden acceder a los dispositivos del entorno, tal y como sucede en los sistemas ubícuos. Las propuestas presentadas fueron evaluadas empíricamente con dos ejemplos, que permiten mostrar sus bondades.Aguero Medina, J. (2015). Diseño de organizaciones virtuales ubícuas utilizando desarrollo dirigido por modelos [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/52597TESI

Un marco para la definición y transformación de modelos en los sistemas multiagentes

El Desarrollo del Software Dirigido por Modelos (DSDM) es un paradigma de desarrollo en el que los modelos son el producto principal, y a partir de ellos se generan los sistemas de forma automática, total o parcialmente. Del tratamiento de los modelos, surge la necesidad de denirlos y transformarlos, que se aborda respectivamente con la denición de metamodelos y transformaciones. Uno de los principales beneciarios del DSDM es la Ingeniería del Software Orientada a Agentes (ISOA). En ésta, se construyen Sistemas Multi-agente (SMAs), que son sistemas distribuidos compuestos por agentes autónomos que interactúan dando lugar a comportamientos complejos. Si bien algunas caracter ísticas del DSDM se han incorporado plenamente en la ISOA como prácticas habituales, todavía dos factores dicultan su implantación completa. En primer lugar, la denición de metamodelos depende de la experiencia del diseñador y no existen guías que faciliten esta labor. Por otro lado, las herramientas y lenguajes existentes no permiten denir transformaciones de modelos con un esfuerzo razonable. Por ello, esta tesis propone una guía para denir metamodelos y un procedimiento para generar Transformaciones. La guía incluye un armazón para estructurar los metamodelos, recomendaciones para las decisiones principales, y una secuencia de pasos para denir los metamodelos. El armazón se estructura en tres capas que contienen respectivamente la información del lenguaje de modelado, los aspectos de presentación de los modelos y la información especíca de las herramientas. En la capa del lenguaje de modelado, se proponen ciertas representaciones de los elementos y se dan las pautas para asociar cada elemento con la representación más apropiada. Para esto se debe elegir entre una representación heterogénea, que minimiza el número de elementos de meta-modelado necesarios para representar los elementos del modelo, o una representación homogénea, con más elementos de meta-modelado pero más fácil de procesar automáticamente. También se debe elegir entre una representación redundante o no redundante de las referencias entre los elementos, dependiendo del nivel de navegabilidad que se desee, ya que dichas referencias son dirigidas. En los aspectos de presentación, se propone usar vistas que hagan referencia a diccionarios globales, facilitando el procesamiento de los modelos y evitando inconsistencias. En la tercera capa, se considera la información especíca de las herramientas, que no se había considerado en aproximaciones anteriores. Como marco de experimentación, con esta guía se ha denido el metamodelo de la herramienta INGENIAS Development Kit (IDK) con el lenguaje ECore, permitiendo incorporar las facilidades tecnológicas de la comunidad Eclipse en dicha herramienta. Además, se ha denido un metamodelo para la generación de un editor de procesos de ISOA, basado en el Software Process Engineering Metamodel (SPEM) del Object Management Group (OMG). En esta tesis, se considera la aproximación conocida como Generación de Transformaciones Basadas en Ejemplo (GTBE), donde se generan transformaciones a partir de parejas de modelos prototipo origen y destino. De esta forma, se evita que el diseñador tenga que conocer los lenguajes de transformación y tratar con detalles de bajo nivel de la especi�cación de los modelos, tales como las primitivas de meta-modelado involucradas en cada elemento del modelo. Las transformaciones generadas transforman los modelos que encajan en los modelos prototipo origen en los nuevos modelos que encajen en los modelos prototipo destino. Es habitual que exista un mecanismo de asociación de atributos para referenciar los modelos prototipo origen desde los modelos prototipo destino, indicando así la forma de transferir la información en las transformaciones generadas. En esta línea, esta tesis presenta un nuevo algoritmo y herramienta para la GTBE, que mejora a los trabajos existentes en varios aspectos. En primer lugar, se permite realizar el mecanismo de asociación de atributos desde varios elementos de cada modelo prototipo origen, mientras que las aproximaciones existentes sólo permiten esta asociación desde un elemento de cada modelo prototipo. Este avance permite combinar información de los atributos de diferentes elementos. Además, el algoritmo permite trabajar con grafos no conexos en los modelos prototipo origen y destino, característica no presente en los trabajos anteriores. Como experimentación, se han generado transformaciones con utilidad práctica en ciertos desarrollos de SMAs. En los ejemplos propuestos, se observa como ciertas transformaciones no podrían haber sido generadas por otras herramientas de GTBE. [ABSTRACT] The Model Driven Development (MDD) is a paradigm of development in which models are the main product and systems are totally or partially generated from these models. When processing models, it is necessary to de�ne and transform them, which is accomplished with the de�nition of metamodels and transformations respectively. One of the �elds that is most bene�tted from MDD is the Agent Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE). AOSE is concerned with the development of Multi-agent Systems (MASs), which are distributed systems made of autonomous agents that interact with each other producing emergent behaviors. Although some aspects of MDD are considered in AOSE, there are still two facts that prevent AOSE from fully incorporating MDD. First, the deinition of metamodels depends on the expertise of designers, and there are not guidelines that facilitate this task. Second, existent tools and languages do not allow practitioners to de�ne model transformations with a moderate effort. Thus, this thesis proposes a guideline for defining metamodels and a mechanism for generating transformations. The guideline includes a framework for structuring metamodels, recommendations for taking the main decisions, and a sequence of activities for defining metamodels. The framework is structured in three layers that respectively contain the information of a modeling language, the aspects for presenting its models, and the tool-specific information. In the modeling language layer, several representations of elements are proposed, and the guideline indicates the manner in which each element can be associated with the most appropriate representations. In this guideline, practitioners decide between a heterogenous representation, which minimizes the number of meta-modeling elements required to represent the modeling elements, and a homogenous representation, which uses more meta-modeling elements but is easier to be automatically processed. The guideline also includes the choice between a redundant and a non-redundant representation, regarding the degree of navigability that is desired. It is worth noticing that references between elements are directed, so the e�ective processing of certain operations over relationships requires redundant inverse references. Regarding the aspects for presenting models, the guideline proposes to use views that make references to global dictionaries, facilitating the processing of models and avoiding inconsistencies. The third layer considers the tool-speci�c information, which is not considered in the existent approaches. For experimentation, the metamodel of the INGENIAS Development Kit (IDK) has been de�ned following the guideline using the ECore language, allowing the incorporation of the technological facilities of the Eclipse community in the IDK. Furthermore, a metamodel is de�ned for the generation of an editor of processes in AOSE based on the Software Process Engineering Metamodel (SPEM) of the Object Management Group (OMG). The second issue considered in this thesis is the di�culties for a cost-efective de�nition of model transformations. For this problem, this research considers the approach known as Model Transformation By-Example (MTBE), which generates transformations from pairs of source and target model prototypes, avoiding that designers have to learn transformation languages and deal with low-level details of the metamodels of the involved modeling languages. The generated transformations transform models that match source prototype models into the new models that �t the target prototype models. These approaches usually include a mechanism for the mapping of attributes that refer to source prototype models from elements in the target prototype models, indicating the way of transferring information in the generated transformations. In this line of research, this thesis presents a new algorithm and tool for MTBE, which overcome some limitations of the existent approaches. First, the presented approach provides a mechanism for mapping attributes from several elements of each source prototype model, while existent approaches only provide this mapping from one element of each source prototype model. This improvement allows one to combine information from the attributes of diferent elements. Moreover, the presented algorithm can process non-connected graphs in the source and target model prototypes, which is not possible in other approaches. For experimentation, the tool has generated transformations with practical utility in certain MAS developments. In the proposed examples, one can observe that certain transformations cannot be generated by other MTBE tools

A model-driven framework for engineering multiagent systems

This dissertation presents the Bochica framework for Agent-Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE). The framework’s task in the software development process is (i) to capture the design decisions for a system under consideration on a platform-independent level of abstraction and (ii) to project this design to a target platform. Bochica goes beyond the state-of-the-art in AOSE as it combines the benefits of a platform-independent approach with the possibility to address concepts of custom application domains and execution environments. Several extension interfaces are specified to enable the customization of the underlying modeling language to the engineer’s needs. Bochica is accompanied by an iterative adaptation process to gradually incorporate extensions. Conceptual mappings for projecting Bochica models to executable code are specified. In order to enable Bochica for modeling agents that inhabit semantically-enhanced virtual worlds, an according extension model is proposed. Finally, a model-driven reverse engineering approach for lifting the underlying design of already implemented Multiagent System (MAS) to the platform-independent layer is introduced. The framework has been successfully evaluated for designing intelligent agents that operate a virtual production line as well as for extracting the underlying design of an already implemented MAS. The evaluation results show that the Bochica approach to AOSE contributes to overcome the gap between design and code.Diese Arbeit präsentiert das Bochica Rahmenwerk für agentenorientierte Softwareentwicklung. Die Aufgabe des Rahmenwerks ist es, die Designentscheidungen für ein IT-System auf einer plattformunabhängigen Ebene festzuhalten und auf eine Zielplattform abzubilden. Bochica erweitert den Stand der Wissenschaft der agentenorientierten Softwareentwicklung durch die Kombination von plattformunabhängigen und plattformspezifischen Eigenschaften. Zu diesem Zweck werden konzeptionelle Schnittstellen für die Anpassung an benutzerspezifische Anwendungsdomänen und Ausführungsumgebungen spezifiziert. Ein iterativer Adaptionsprozess ermöglicht die schrittweise Integration von neuen Konzepten. Für die Projektion von Bochica-Modellen auf eine Agentenplattform werden entsprechende Abbildungsregeln spezifiziert. Um das Bochica Rahmenwerk für die Modellierung von Agenten in semantisch annotierten virtuellen Welten anzupassen wird eine entsprechende Erweiterung eingeführt. Abschließend wird ein modellgetriebener Ansatz für die Extraktion des zugrundeliegenden Designs eines bereits implementierten Agentensystems auf die platformunabhängige Ebene vorgestellt. Bochica wurde in zwei Fallstudien für die Modellierung von Agenten in einer virtuelle Fabrikumgebung und die Extraktion des Designs eines bereits implementierten Agentensystems evaluiert. Die Evaluierungsergebnisse zeigen, daß das Rahmenwerk die Lücke zwischen einem plattformunabhängigen agentenorientiertem Design und der Zielplattform effektiv verringert

Representing fire emergency response knowledge through a domain modelling approach

When any kind of emergency occurs, Emergency Responders (ERs) from different emergency organizations (such as police, fire, ambulance and municipality) have to act concurrently to solve the difficulties which are posed at the emergency site. Moreover, during the immediate response, getting the awareness of the situation is very crucial for ERs to lessen the emergency impacts such as loss of life and damage to the property. However, this can only be done when ERs get access to the information in timely manner and share the acquired information with one another during emergency response. Despite ERs share knowledge with one another they have to use same concepts to obtain the semantic understanding in order to perform actions for achieving goals. In addition, the success of the emergency response lies on the ERs’ coordination and their interoperability (information systems interoperability). Therefore, in this paper we provide a formal structure to the concepts that describes the building fire emergency management domain in order to provide a common semantic understanding for ERs. In our study, domain modelling approach has been used to represent the concepts formally. The presented results combine the knowledge from semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and through literature review. The developed domain model includes four aspects: i) characteristics of the event, ii) actors involved, iii) goals to achieve and iv) Building characteristics. Besides, the developed domain model serves as a foundational component to create an information system to unify, facilitate and expedite access to emergency related information for facilitating data exchange format and enable knowledge sharing among different emergency actors