AGENT-BASED NEGOTIATION PLATFORM IN COLLABORATIVE NETWORKED ENVIRONMENT

This paper proposes an agent-based platform to model and support parallel and concurrent negotiations among organizations acting in the same industrial market. The underlying complexity is to model the dynamic environment where multi-attribute and multi-participant negotiations are racing over a set of heterogeneous resources. The metaphor Interaction Abstract Machines (IAMs) is used to model the parallelism and the non-deterministic aspects of the negotiation processes that occur in Collaborative Networked Environment

An environment to support negotiation and contracting in collaborative networks

During the last years, manufacturing and service industries faced a global change in the production paradigm. They have to continuously adapt their operating principles in reaction to new business or collaboration opportunities, where a natural reaction is a shift to a new business paradigm with the creation of strategic alliances for product or services development, but also for innovative and emergent business services design. On one hand, the process of creating such alliances can be rather simple if organizations share the same geographical and cultural context. But on the other hand, considering different conditions, there might be a low success rate in the creation of successful consortia. One known reason for such low rate are the delays resulting from negotiations in the establishment of collaboration commitments, represented by contracts or agreements, which are crucial in the creation of such alliances. The collaborative networks discipline covers the study of networks of organizations specially when supported by computer networks. This thesis contributes with research in this field describing the creation process of virtual organizations, and proposing a negotiation support environment to help participants in the negotiation of the consortia creation process and in the co-design of new business services. A negotiation support environment is therefore proposed and described with its main requirements, adopted negotiation protocol, conceptual architecture, models, and software environment. To demonstrate the feasibility of the implementation of the proposed systems, a proof-ofconcept software prototype was implemented and tested using some specific scenarios. This thesis work has been validated adopting a methodology that includes: (i) validation in the research community; (ii) validation in a solar industry network; and (iii) validation by comparison analysis

A Novel Cooperation and Competition Strategy Among Multi-Agent Crawlers

Multi-Agent theory which is used for communication and collaboration among focused crawlers has been proved that it can improve the precision of returned result significantly. In this paper, we proposed a new organizational structure of multi-agent for focused crawlers, in which the agents were divided into three categories, namely F-Agent (Facilitator-Agent), As-Agent (Assistance-Agent) and C-Agent (Crawler-Agent). They worked on their own responsibilities and cooperated mutually to complete a common task of web crawling. In our proposed architecture of focused crawlers based on multi-agent system, we emphasized discussing the collaborative process among multiple agents. To control the cooperation among agents, we proposed a negotiation protocol based on the contract net protocol and achieved the collaboration model of focused crawlers based on multi-agent by JADE. At last, the comparative experiment results showed that our focused crawlers had higher precision and efficiency than other crawlers using the algorithms with breadth-first, best-first, etc

Design of a pneumatic soft robotic actuator using model-based optimization

In this thesis, the design and optimization process of a novel soft intelligent modular pad (IntelliPad) for the purpose of pressure injury prevention is presented. The structure of the IntelliPad consists of multiple individual multi-chamber soft pneumatic-driven actuators that use pressurized air and vacuum. Each actuator is able to provide both vertical and horizontal motions that can be controlled independently. An analytical modeling approach using multiple cantilever beams and virtual springs connected in a closed formed structure was developed to analyze the mechanical performance of the actuator. The analytical approach was validated by a finite element analysis. For optimizing the actuator\u27s mechanical performance, firefly algorithm and deep reinforcement learning-based design optimization frameworks were developed with the purpose of maximizing the horizontal motion of the top surface of the actuators, while minimizing its corresponding effect on the vertical motion. Four optimized designs were fabricated. The actuators were tested and validated experimentally to demonstrate their required mechanical performance in order to regulate normal and shear stresses at the skin-pad interface for pressure injury prevention applications

FUZZY IN LEAN TO EVALUATE THE DECISION DEGREE

The research aims to structure hierarchically an approach about the importance in decision making processes in the organizational environment, facilitating the applicability of Lean principles. The proposal was carried out using the Fuzzy - Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP). We used the parity and individual matrices between three managers and nine supervisor’s experts in production through individual questionnaire application and focal group. The answers were collected through the categorical application, where the moderator role was conducted by the researchers themselves with six constructs and 33 subconstructs in three companies from different branches, having characteristics closely related in the manufacturing sector. As results about the companies’ operations and processes, the values that obtained the highest degree of importance were the management construct (23%); capacity (22%) and costs (20%). We conclude for Lean principles these three factors have a 65% impact degree on decisions.Keywords: FAHP. Lean. Manufacturing. Decision Making Processes. Production.RESUMOA pesquisa buscou estruturar hierarquicamente uma abordagem sobre a importância em processos decisórios no âmbito organizacional, facilitando a aplicabilidade dos princípios Lean. A proposta transcorreu com o auxílio analítico de Fuzzy – Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP). Desse modo, utilizou-se das matrizes paritárias e individuais entre três gestores e nove supervisores especialistas em produção utilizando técnicas de aplicação de questionário individual e grupo focal respectivamente. As respostas foram coletadas por meio da aplicação categórica, no qual o papel de moderador foi realizado pelos pesquisadores, com seis constructos e 33 subconstructos em três empresas de ramos diferentes, mas com características do setor manufatureiras fortemente relacionadas. Como respostas sobre as operações e processos das indústrias no âmbito atual, os valores que obtiveram maior grau de importância foram o constructo gestão (23%); capacidade (22%) e custos (20%). Conclui-se que, para princípios Lean, estes três fatores engajados impactam em um grau de 65% nas decisões.Palavras-chave: FAHP. Lean. Manufatureiras. Processos Decisórios. Produção

Designing normative open virtual enterprises

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Enterprise Information Systems on 23/03/2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/17517575.2015.1036927.[EN] There is an increasing interest on developing virtual enterprises in order to deal with the globalisation of the economy, the rapid growth of information technologies and the increase of competitiveness. In this paper we deal with the development of normative open virtual enterprises (NOVEs). They are systems with a global objective that are composed of a set of heterogeneous entities and enterprises that exchange services following a specific normative context. In order to analyse and design systems of this kind the multi-agent paradigm seems suitable because it offers a specific solution for supporting the social and contractual relationships between enterprises and for formalising their business processes. This paper presents how the Regulated Open Multiagent systems (ROMAS) methodology, an agent-oriented software methodology, can be used to analyse and design NOVEs. ROMAS offers a complete development process that allows identifying and formalising of the structure of NOVEs, their normative context and the interactions among their members. The use of ROMAS is exemplified by means of a case study that represents an automotive supply chain.This work was partially supported by the projects [PROMETEOII/2013/019], [TIN2012-36586-C03-01], [FP7-29493], [TIN2011-27652-C03-00] and [CSD2007-00022], and the CASES project within the 7th European Community Framework Programme [grant agreement number 294931].Garcia Marques, ME.; Giret Boggino, AS.; Botti Navarro, VJ. (2016). Designing normative open virtual enterprises. Enterprise Information Systems. 10(3):303-324. https://doi.org/10.1080/17517575.2015.1036927S303324103Cardoso, H. L., Urbano, J., Brandão, P., Rocha, A. P., & Oliveira, E. (2012). 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The Knowledge Engineering Review, 20(2), 165-189. doi:10.1017/s0269888905000494Dignum, V. 2003. “A Model for Organizational Interaction: Based on Agents, Founded in Logic.” PhD diss., Utrecht University.Dignum, V., and F. Dignum. 2006.A Landscape of Agent Systems for the Real World. Technical Report 44-CS-2006-061. Utrecht: Institute of Information and Computing Sciences, Utrecht University.Dignum, V., Meyer, J.-J. C., Dignum, F., & Weigand, H. (2003). Formal Specification of Interaction in Agent Societies. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 37-52. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-45133-4_4Garcia, E. 2013. “Engineering Regulated Open Multiagent Systems.” PhD diss., Universitat Politecnica de Valencia.Garcia, E., Giret, A., & Botti, V. (s. f.). Software Engineering for Service-Oriented MAS. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 86-100. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-85834-8_9Garcia, E., Giret, A., & Botti, V. (2013). A Model-Driven CASE tool for developing and verifying regulated open MAS. Science of Computer Programming, 78(6), 695-704. doi:10.1016/j.scico.2011.10.009Garcia, E., Giret, A., & Botti, V. (2011). Evaluating software engineering techniques for developing complex systems with multiagent approaches. Information and Software Technology, 53(5), 494-506. doi:10.1016/j.infsof.2010.12.012Garcia, E., Giret, A., & Botti, V. (2011). Regulated Open Multi-Agent Systems Based on Contracts. Information Systems Development, 243-255. doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-9790-6_20Garcia, E., Giret, A., & Botti, V. (2014). ROMAS Methodology. Handbook on Agent-Oriented Design Processes, 331-369. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-39975-6_11Hollander, C. D., & Wu, A. S. (2011). The Current State of Normative Agent-Based Systems. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 14(2). doi:10.18564/jasss.1750HORLING, B., & LESSER, V. (2004). A survey of multi-agent organizational paradigms. 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Design of platforms based on blockchain technology applied to different use cases

[EN]The developments of my PhD in this past year are shown in this article. It is studied thoroughly the possibilities and limits of the blockchain protocols when used in IoT platforms. It is commented how the scalability limits of blockchain technology affects the performance of the systems that make use of it. Also, a review of the state of the art has been carried out, pointing out how some solutions make use of a centralization process to improve response time and security of the blockchain. As future remarks, it should be studying the possibility of creating a public blockchain network with the IoT devices of the platform