A spawn mobile agent itinerary planning approach for energy-efficient data gathering in wireless sensor networks

Mobile agent (MA), a part of the mobile computing paradigm, was recently proposed for data gathering in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). The MA-based approach employs two algorithms: Single-agent Itinerary Planning (SIP) and Multi-mobile agent Itinerary Planning (MIP) for energy-efficient data gathering. The MIP was proposed to outperform the weakness of SIP by introducing distributed multi MAs to perform the data gathering task. Despite the advantages of MIP, finding the optimal number of distributed MAs and their itineraries are still regarded as critical issues. The existing MIP algorithms assume that the itinerary of the MA has to start and return back to the sink node. Moreover, each distributed MA has to carry the processing code (data aggregation code) to collect the sensory data and return back to the sink with the accumulated data. However, these assumptions have resulted in an increase in the number of MA's migration hops, which subsequently leads to an increase in energy and time consumption. In this paper, a spawn multi-mobile agent itinerary planning (SMIP) approach is proposed to mitigate the substantial increase in cost of energy and time used in the data gathering processes. The proposed approach is based on the agent spawning such that the main MA is able to spawn other MAs with different tasks assigned from the main MA. Extensive simulation experiments have been conducted to test the performance of the proposed approach against some selected MIP algorithms. The results show that the proposed SMIP outperforms the counterpart algorithms in terms of energy consumption and task delay (time), and improves the integrated energy-delay performance

Multi-agent based architecture for digital libraries

Digital Libraries (DL) generally contain a collection of independently maintained data sets, in different formats, which may be queried by geographically dispersed users. The general problem of managing such large digital data archives is particularly challenging when the system must cope with data which is processed on demand. This dissertation proposes a Multi-Agent System (MAS) architecture for the utilisation of an active DL that provides computing services in addition to data-retrieval services, so that users can initiate computing jobs on remote supercomputers for processing, mining, and filtering of the data in the library. The system architecture is based on a collaborative set of agents, where each agent undertakes a pre-defined role, and is responsible for offering a particular type of service. The integration of services is based on a user defined query which can range in complexity from simple queries, to specialised algorithms which are transmitted to image processing archives as mobile agents. The proposed architecture enables new information sources and services to be integrated into the system dynamically, supports autonomous and dynamic on-demand data processing based on collaboration between agents, capable of handling a large number of concurrent users. Focus is based on the management of mobile agents which roam through the servers that constitute the DL to serve user queries. A new load balancing scheme is proposed for managing agent load among the available servers, based on the system state information and predictions about lifetime of agent tasks and server status. The system architecture is further extended by defining a gateway to provide interoperability with other heterogeneous agent-based systems. Interoperability in this sense enables agents from different types of platforms to communicate between themselves and use services provided by other systems. The novelty of the proposed gateway approach lies in the ability to adapt an existing legacy system for use with the agent-based approach (and one that adheres to FIPA standards). A prototype has been developed as a proof-of-concept to outline the principles and ideas involved, with reference to the Synthetic Aperture Radar Atlas (SARA) DL composed of multi-spectral remote-sensing imagery of the Earth. Although, the work presented in this dissertation has been evaluated in the context of SARA DL, the proposed techniques suggest useful guidelines that may be employed by other active archival systems

Pervasive handheld computing systems

The technological role of handheld devices is fundamentally changing. Portable computers were traditionally application specific. They were designed and optimised to deliver a specific task. However, it is now commonly acknowledged that future handheld devices need to be multi-functional and need to be capable of executing a range of high-performance applications. This thesis has coined the term pervasive handheld computing systems to refer to this type of mobile device. Portable computers are faced with a number of constraints in trying to meet these objectives. They are physically constrained by their size, their computational power, their memory resources, their power usage, and their networking ability. These constraints challenge pervasive handheld computing systems in achieving their multi-functional and high-performance requirements. This thesis proposes a two-pronged methodology to enable pervasive handheld computing systems meet their future objectives. The methodology is a fusion of two independent and yet complementary concepts. The first step utilises reconfigurable technology to enhance the physical hardware resources within the environment of a handheld device. This approach recognises that reconfigurable computing has the potential to dynamically increase the system functionality and versatility of a handheld device without major loss in performance. The second step of the methodology incorporates agent-based middleware protocols to support handheld devices to effectively manage and utilise these reconfigurable hardware resources within their environment. The thesis asserts the combined characteristics of reconfigurable computing and agent technology can meet the objectives of pervasive handheld computing systems

Foundations of Human-Aware Planning -- A Tale of Three Models

abstract: A critical challenge in the design of AI systems that operate with humans in the loop is to be able to model the intentions and capabilities of the humans, as well as their beliefs and expectations of the AI system itself. This allows the AI system to be "human- aware" -- i.e. the human task model enables it to envisage desired roles of the human in joint action, while the human mental model allows it to anticipate how its own actions are perceived from the point of view of the human. In my research, I explore how these concepts of human-awareness manifest themselves in the scope of planning or sequential decision making with humans in the loop. To this end, I will show (1) how the AI agent can leverage the human task model to generate symbiotic behavior; and (2) how the introduction of the human mental model in the deliberative process of the AI agent allows it to generate explanations for a plan or resort to explicable plans when explanations are not desired. The latter is in addition to traditional notions of human-aware planning which typically use the human task model alone and thus enables a new suite of capabilities of a human-aware AI agent. Finally, I will explore how the AI agent can leverage emerging mixed-reality interfaces to realize effective channels of communication with the human in the loop.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Computer Science 201

2011, UMaine News Press Releases

This is a catalog of press releases put out by the University of Maine Division of Marketing and Communications between January 3, 2011 and December 30, 2011

Parsing Technology-entanglement for Thick-things: The Complication or Complexity of Media and Technologies

Can an interpretive framework untangle distributed forms of technology-enabled media? The thesis develops an interpretive framework to provide an antidote to reckless imaginations that privilege concealment and encourage explanations of technology-enablement as social or automagical. The framework is a response to Latour's call to modify explanations given simply as 'social' and Kittler's observation of software as an unrecognizable layering of linguistic extensions. The interpretive framework is developed from successive encounters with technology-enablement associated with a particular geospatial use of Augmented Reality. Augmented Reality that accesses photos embedded with geospatial information depends on multiple distributed technologies ranging from smartphones to satellites. This contemporary form of technology-enabled media is demonstrated by a Panoramio geospatial layer of tourist photos accessed using the software product Layar. The encounters are with an image collection, WIFI router, 3G cellular data network, iPhone, geospatial location service and Layar. These enabling technologies have been gathered and inspected for human and nonhuman agencies during project encounters that followed an ethnographic approach. A dialogue with technology practitioners informs the analytical engagement with Augmented Reality to provide an alternative vocabulary for theoretical access to those vastly distributed and indescribable technology-enablers. The framework is developed through successive propositions. The encounters pursue the trajectory of a digital image from a technology-enabled visual representation that can be created or consumed with ease to distributed image collections that operate as a contemporary site of interoperability. Photos are transformed in proposition 1 from a visual surface to a realm of specificity that is a stratified and expansive construction of exchangeable data. The second proposition establishes technologies as constructed from atomic building blocks that are combined in either complicated or complex formations. The second proposition asserts that it is necessary to distinguish between complication and complexity. Propositions 1 and 2 are extended by a debate between respective positions of an extremely flat ontology and an expansive materialism represented by Bryant, Barad, Latour and Bennett. The flat ontology is rejected and a thick account of things is asserted as a position that better accounts for the entanglement of humans and nonhumans interoperating amongst a synthetic ecology of media technologies. The third proposition is that the technology-enablement of media is a complicated or complex form of technology-entanglement. The thesis demonstrates this interpretive framework before concluding with a ‘how-to’ that guides researchers adapting this methodology for their own projects