Contract related agents

Imperial Users onl

Information management in Reverse logistics

This paper presents an overview of challenges related to information management in reverse logistics and an overview of selected disruptive technologies (Internet of Things, Blockchain, Cloud computing and Artificial intelligence) that improve information management and information flow in the reverse logistics chain. The theoretical background of reverse logistics and selected disruptive technologies is provided. The goal of this paper is to research how information management in reverse logistics can be improved through the use of disruptive technologies. The research problem results from increased costs and insufficient prediction accuracy in the reverse logistics chain

Disruptive Innovations in Electronic Transportation Management Systems

This paper provides an overview of selected disruptive innovations (Blockchain, Internet of Things and Big Data) in electronic transportation management systems in general, and their possible impact in maritime transport. The theoretical background is provided, including transportation, electronic transportation management systems and selected disruptive technologies. The impact, major challenges and success factors in implementing disruptive innovations in maritime transport are pointed out and elaborated. Finally, authors provide the discussion and the future perspective of selected disruptive innovations, with an emphasis on maritime transport

Logic-based Technologies for Multi-agent Systems: A Systematic Literature Review

Precisely when the success of artificial intelligence (AI) sub-symbolic techniques makes them be identified with the whole AI by many non-computerscientists and non-technical media, symbolic approaches are getting more and more attention as those that could make AI amenable to human understanding. Given the recurring cycles in the AI history, we expect that a revamp of technologies often tagged as “classical AI” – in particular, logic-based ones will take place in the next few years. On the other hand, agents and multi-agent systems (MAS) have been at the core of the design of intelligent systems since their very beginning, and their long-term connection with logic-based technologies, which characterised their early days, might open new ways to engineer explainable intelligent systems. This is why understanding the current status of logic-based technologies for MAS is nowadays of paramount importance. Accordingly, this paper aims at providing a comprehensive view of those technologies by making them the subject of a systematic literature review (SLR). The resulting technologies are discussed and evaluated from two different perspectives: the MAS and the logic-based ones

A Review of Platforms for the Development of Agent Systems

Agent-based computing is an active field of research with the goal of building autonomous software of hardware entities. This task is often facilitated by the use of dedicated, specialized frameworks. For almost thirty years, many such agent platforms have been developed. Meanwhile, some of them have been abandoned, others continue their development and new platforms are released. This paper presents a up-to-date review of the existing agent platforms and also a historical perspective of this domain. It aims to serve as a reference point for people interested in developing agent systems. This work details the main characteristics of the included agent platforms, together with links to specific projects where they have been used. It distinguishes between the active platforms and those no longer under development or with unclear status. It also classifies the agent platforms as general purpose ones, free or commercial, and specialized ones, which can be used for particular types of applications.Comment: 40 pages, 2 figures, 9 tables, 83 reference

Modélisation d'une interaction système-résident contextuelle, personnalisée et adaptative pour l'assistance cognitive à la réalisation des activités de la vie quotidienne dans les maisons connectées

Alors que le nombre de personnes vivant avec des déficits cognitifs qui découlent d’un traumatisme craniocérébral (TCC) va en croissant, les technologies d’assistance sont de plus en plus développées pour résoudre les problèmes qu’ils induisent dans la réalisation des activités de la vie quotidienne. L’Internet des objets et l’intelligence ambiante offrent un cadre pour fournir des services d’assistance sensibles au contexte, adaptatifs, autonomes et personnalisés pour ces personnes ayant des besoins particuliers. Une revue de la littérature sur le sujet permet de constater que les systèmes existants offrent très souvent une assistance excessive, quand l’aide contient plus d’information que nécessaire ou quand elle est fournie automatiquement à chaque étape de l’activité. Cette assistance, inadaptée aux besoins et aux capacités de la personne, est contraire à certains principes de la réadaptation cognitive qui prônent la fourniture d’une assistance minimale pour encourager la personne à agir au meilleur de ses capacités. Cette thèse propose des modèles pour automatiser l’assistance cognitive sous forme de dialogue contextuel entre une personne ayant des déficits cognitifs dus au TCC et un système lui fournissant l’assistance appropriée qui l’encourage à réaliser ses activités par lui-même. Les principales contributions sont : (1) un modèle ontologique comme support de l’assistance cognitive dans les maisons connectées ; (2) un modèle d’interaction entre l’agent intelligent d’une maison connectée et une personne ayant subi un TCC, dans le cadre de l’assistance cognitive. Le modèle ontologique proposé s’appuie sur les actes de langages et les données probantes de la réadaptation cognitive afin que l’assistance reflète la pratique clinique. Il vise à fournir aux maisons intelligentes la sémantique des données nécessaires pour caractériser les situations où il y a besoin d’assistance, les messages d’assistance de gradations différentes et les réactions de la personne. Informé par le modèle ontologique, le modèle d’interaction basé sur des arbres de comportement (« behaviour trees ») permet alors à un agent intelligent de planifier dynamiquement la diffusion de messages d’assistance progressifs avec des ajustements si nécessaire, en fonction du profil et du comportement du résident de la maison connectée lors de l’accomplissement de ses activités. Une validation préliminaire montre l’applicabilité des modèles dans l’implémentation de scénarios relatifs à l’utilisation sécuritaire d’une cuisinière connectée dédiée aux personnes ayant subi un TCC

Intelligence by Design: Principles of Modularity and Coordination for Engineerin

All intelligence relies on search --- for example, the search for an intelligent agent's next action. Search is only likely to succeed in resource-bounded agents if they have already been biased towards finding the right answer. In artificial agents, the primary source of bias is engineering. This dissertation describes an approach, Behavior-Oriented Design (BOD) for engineering complex agents. A complex agent is one that must arbitrate between potentially conflicting goals or behaviors. Behavior-oriented design builds on work in behavior-based and hybrid architectures for agents, and the object oriented approach to software engineering. The primary contributions of this dissertation are: 1.The BOD architecture: a modular architecture with each module providing specialized representations to facilitate learning. This includes one pre-specified module and representation for action selection or behavior arbitration. The specialized representation underlying BOD action selection is Parallel-rooted, Ordered, Slip-stack Hierarchical (POSH) reactive plans. 2.The BOD development process: an iterative process that alternately scales the agent's capabilities then optimizes the agent for simplicity, exploiting tradeoffs between the component representations. This ongoing process for controlling complexity not only provides bias for the behaving agent, but also facilitates its maintenance and extendibility. The secondary contributions of this dissertation include two implementations of POSH action selection, a procedure for identifying useful idioms in agent architectures and using them to distribute knowledge across agent paradigms, several examples of applying BOD idioms to established architectures, an analysis and comparison of the attributes and design trends of a large number of agent architectures, a comparison of biological (particularly mammalian) intelligence to artificial agent architectures, a novel model of primate transitive inference, and many other examples of BOD agents and BOD development

Goal-oriented Behaviour for Intelligent Game Agents

This thesis concerns our innovation in game AI techniques, mainly game agents' modeling, planning and learning. The research topic involves the development of a game design software --- Gameme. Our work mainly focus on the development of the core AI module. In this thesis, after discussing the system design of Gameme, we explain our contributions in two parts: off-line design and real-time processing. In off-line design, we present goal-oriented behaviour design and related modeling methodology for game agents. The goal-oriented design provides not only an intuitive behaviour design methodology for non-professional game designers but also efficient support for real-time behaviour control. In particular, the goal-oriented design can be used in modeling agents in different games. The real-time processing component includes planning and learning mechanisms for game agents. These mechanisms are placed in a layered architecture. Basically, a procedural planning mechanism allows game agents to have the ability of fast reaction to their environment. Then, the creative transfer and adaptive learning mechanism trains game agents to learn from their experience and cooperate in teamwork. Furthermore, the unique emergent learning mechanism can allow game agents to have the ability to analyze different PCs' behaviour patterns and to find the suitable strategy to defeat PCs in real-time. Most of the experiments in this thesis are performed in fighting scenarios. We connected the core AI module with a 3D graphics engine in order to have visual testing results. All test cases show that our goal-oriented behaviour design along with planning and learning mechanisms can provide fast, autonomous, collaborative and adaptive behaviour instructions for game agent in real-time game play

Architecture and communication protocol to monitor and control water quality and irrigation in agricultural environments

[ES] La introducción de soluciones tecnológicas en la agricultura permite reducir el uso de recursos y aumentar la producción de los cultivos. Además, la calidad del agua de regadío se puede monitorizar para asegurar la seguridad de los productos para el consumo humano. Sin embargo, la localización remota de la mayoría de los campos presenta un problema para proveer de cobertura inalámbrica a los nodos sensores y actuadores desplegados en los campos y los canales de agua para regadío. El trabajo presentado en esta tesis aborda el problema de habilitar la comunicación inalámbrica entre los dispositivos electrónicos desplegados para la monitorización de la calidad del agua y el campo a través de un protocolo de comunicación y arquitectura heterogéneos. La primera parte de esta tesis introduce los sistemas de agricultura de precisión (PA) y la importancia de la monitorización de la calidad del agua y el campo. Asimismo, las tecnologías que permiten la comunicación inalámbrica en sistemas PA y el uso de soluciones alternativas como el internet de las cosas bajo tierra (IoUT) y los vehículos aéreos no tripulados (UAV) se introducen también. Después, se realiza un análisis en profundidad del estado del arte respecto a los sensores para la monitorización del agua, el campo y las condiciones meteorológicas, así como sobre las tecnologías inalámbricas más empleadas en PA. Además, las tendencias actuales y los desafíos de los sistemas de internet de las cosas (IoT) para regadío, incluyendo las soluciones alternativas introducidas anteriormente, han sido abordados en detalle. A continuación, se presenta la arquitectura propuesta para el sistema, la cual incluye las áreas de interés para las actividades monitorización que incluye las áreas de los canales y el campo. A su vez, la descripción y los algoritmos de operación de los nodos sensores contemplados para cada área son proporcionados. El siguiente capítulo detalla el protocolo de comunicación heterogéneo propuesto, incluyendo los mensajes y alertas del sistema. Adicionalmente, se presenta una nueva topología de árbol para redes híbridas LoRa/WiFi multisalto. Las funcionalidades específicas adicionales concebidas para la arquitectura propuesta están descritas en el siguiente capítulo. Éstas incluyen algoritmos de agregación de datos para la topología propuesta, un esquema de las amenazas de seguridad para los sistemas PA, algoritmos de ahorro de energía y tolerancia a fallos, comunicación bajo tierra para IoUT y el uso de drones para adquisición de datos. Después, los resultados de las simulaciones para las soluciones propuestas anteriormente son presentados. Finalmente, se tratan las pruebas realizadas en entornos reales para el protocolo heterogéneo presentado, las diferentes estrategias de despliegue de los nodos empleados, el consumo energético y la función de cuantificación de fruta. Estas pruebas demuestran la validez de la arquitectura y protocolo de comunicación heterogéneos que se han propuesto.[CA] La introducció de solucions tecnològiques en l'agricultura permet reduir l'ús de recursos i augmentar la producció dels cultius. A més, la qualitat de l'aigua de regadiu es pot monitoritzar per assegurar la qualitat dels productes per al consum humà. No obstant això, la localització remota de la majoria dels camps presenta un problema per a proveir de cobertura sense fils als nodes sensors i actuadors desplegats als camps i els canals d'aigua per a regadiu. El treball presentat en aquesta tesi tracta el problema d'habilitar la comunicació sense fils entre els dispositius electrònics desplegats per a la monitorització de la qualitat de l'aigua i el camp a través d'un protocol de comunicació i arquitectura heterogenis. La primera part d'aquesta tesi introdueix els sistemes d'agricultura de precisió (PA) i la importància de la monitorització de la qualitat de l'aigua i el camp. Així mateix, també s'introdueixen les tecnologies que permeten la comunicació sense fils en sistemes PA i l'ús de solucions alternatives com l'Internet de les coses sota terra (IoUT) i els vehicles aeris no tripulats (UAV). Després, es realitza una anàlisi en profunditat de l'estat de l'art respecte als sensors per a la monitorització de l'aigua, el camp i les condicions meteorològiques, així com sobre les tecnologies sense fils més emprades en PA. S'aborden les tendències actuals i els reptes dels sistemes d'internet de les coses (IoT) per a regadiu, incloent les solucions alternatives introduïdes anteriorment. A continuació, es presenta l'arquitectura proposada per al sistema, on s'inclouen les àrees d'interès per a les activitats monitorització en els canals i el camp. Finalment, es proporciona la descripció i els algoritmes d'operació dels nodes sensors contemplats per a cada àrea. El següent capítol detalla el protocol de comunicació heterogeni proposat, així como el disseny del missatges i alertes que el sistema proposa. A més, es presenta una nova topologia d'arbre per a xarxes híbrides Lora/WiFi multi-salt. Les funcionalitats específiques addicionals concebudes per l'arquitectura proposada estan descrites en el següent capítol. Aquestes inclouen algoritmes d'agregació de dades per a la topologia proposta, un esquema de les alertes de seguretat per als sistemes PA, algoritmes d'estalvi d'energia i tolerància a fallades, comunicació per a IoUT i l'ús de drons per a adquisició de dades. Després, es presenten els resultats de les simulacions per a les solucions proposades. Finalment, es duen a terme les proves en entorns reals per al protocol heterogeni dissenyat. A més s'expliquen les diferents estratègies de desplegament dels nodes empleats, el consum energètic, així com, la funció de quantificació de fruita. Els resultats d'aquetes proves demostren la validesa de l'arquitectura i protocol de comunicació heterogenis propost en aquesta tesi.[EN] The introduction of technological solutions in agriculture allows reducing the use of resources and increasing the production of the crops. Furthermore, the quality of the water for irrigation can be monitored to ensure the safety of the produce for human consumption. However, the remote location of most fields presents a problem for providing wireless coverage to the sensing nodes and actuators deployed on the fields and the irrigation water canals. The work presented in this thesis addresses the problem of enabling wireless communication among the electronic devices deployed for water quality and field monitoring through a heterogeneous communication protocol and architecture. The first part of the dissertation introduces Precision Agriculture (PA) systems and the importance of water quality and field monitoring. In addition, the technologies that enable wireless communication in PA systems and the use of alternative solutions such as Internet of Underground Things (IoUT) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are introduced as well. Then, an in-depth analysis on the state of the art regarding the sensors for water, field and meteorology monitoring and the most utilized wireless technologies in PA is performed. Furthermore, the current trends and challenges for Internet of Things (IoT) irrigation systems, including the alternate solutions previously introduced, have been discussed in detail. Then, the architecture for the proposed system is presented, which includes the areas of interest for the monitoring activities comprised of the canal and field areas. Moreover, the description and operation algorithms of the sensor nodes contemplated for each area is provided. The next chapter details the proposed heterogeneous communication protocol including the messages and alerts of the system. Additionally, a new tree topology for hybrid LoRa/WiFi multi-hop networks is presented. The specific additional functionalities intended for the proposed architecture are described in the following chapter. It includes data aggregation algorithms for the proposed topology, an overview on the security threats of PA systems, energy-saving and fault-tolerance algorithms, underground communication for IoUT, and the use of drones for data acquisition. Then, the simulation results for the solutions previously proposed are presented. Finally, the tests performed in real environments for the presented heterogeneous protocol, the different deployment strategies for the utilized nodes, the energy consumption, and a functionality for fruit quantification are discussed. These tests demonstrate the validity of the proposed heterogeneous architecture and communication protocol.García García, L. (2021). Architecture and communication protocol to monitor and control water quality and irrigation in agricultural environments [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/17422