Cooperation in Industrial Systems

ARCHON is an ongoing ESPRIT II project (P-2256) which is approximately half way through its five year duration. It is concerned with defining and applying techniques from the area of Distributed Artificial Intelligence to the development of real-size industrial applications. Such techniques enable multiple problem solvers (e.g. expert systems, databases and conventional numerical software systems) to communicate and cooperate with each other to improve both their individual problem solving behavior and the behavior of the community as a whole. This paper outlines the niche of ARCHON in the Distributed AI world and provides an overview of the philosophy and architecture of our approach the essence of which is to be both general (applicable to the domain of industrial process control) and powerful enough to handle real-world problems

Distributed, cooperating knowledge-based systems

Some current research in the development and application of distributed, cooperating knowledge-based systems technology is addressed. The focus of the current research is the spacecraft ground operations environment. The underlying hypothesis is that, because of the increasing size, complexity, and cost of planned systems, conventional procedural approaches to the architecture of automated systems will give way to a more comprehensive knowledge-based approach. A hallmark of these future systems will be the integration of multiple knowledge-based agents which understand the operational goals of the system and cooperate with each other and the humans in the loop to attain the goals. The current work includes the development of a reference model for knowledge-base management, the development of a formal model of cooperating knowledge-based agents, the use of testbed for prototyping and evaluating various knowledge-based concepts, and beginning work on the establishment of an object-oriented model of an intelligent end-to-end (spacecraft to user) system. An introductory discussion of these activities is presented, the major concepts and principles being investigated are highlighted, and their potential use in other application domains is indicated

Coordination approaches and systems - part I : a strategic perspective

This is the first part of a two-part paper presenting a fundamental review and summary of research of design coordination and cooperation technologies. The theme of this review is aimed at the research conducted within the decision management aspect of design coordination. The focus is therefore on the strategies involved in making decisions and how these strategies are used to satisfy design requirements. The paper reviews research within collaborative and coordinated design, project and workflow management, and, task and organization models. The research reviewed has attempted to identify fundamental coordination mechanisms from different domains, however it is concluded that domain independent mechanisms need to be augmented with domain specific mechanisms to facilitate coordination. Part II is a review of design coordination from an operational perspective

A survey of agent-oriented methodologies

This article introduces the current agent-oriented methodologies. It discusses what approaches have been followed (mainly extending existing object oriented and knowledge engineering methodologies), the suitability of these approaches for agent modelling, and some conclusions drawn from the survey

A consensus based network intrusion detection system

Network intrusion detection is the process of identifying malicious behaviors that target a network and its resources. Current systems implementing intrusion detection processes observe traffic at several data collecting points in the network but analysis is often centralized or partly centralized. These systems are not scalable and suffer from the single point of failure, i.e. attackers only need to target the central node to compromise the whole system. This paper proposes an anomaly-based fully distributed network intrusion detection system where analysis is run at each data collecting point using a naive Bayes classifier. Probability values computed by each classifier are shared among nodes using an iterative average consensus protocol. The final analysis is performed redundantly and in parallel at the level of each data collecting point, thus avoiding the single point of failure issue. We run simulations focusing on DDoS attacks with several network configurations, comparing the accuracy of our fully distributed system with a hierarchical one. We also analyze communication costs and convergence speed during consensus phases.Comment: Presented at THE 5TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON IT CONVERGENCE AND SECURITY 2015 IN KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSI

Research and development at ORNL/CESAR towards cooperating robotic systems for hazardous environments

One of the frontiers in intelligent machine research is the understanding of how constructive cooperation among multiple autonomous agents can be effected. The effort at the Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) focuses on two problem areas: (1) cooperation by multiple mobile robots in dynamic, incompletely known environments; and (2) cooperating robotic manipulators. Particular emphasis is placed on experimental evaluation of research and developments using the CESAR robot system testbeds, including three mobile robots, and a seven-axis, kinematically redundant mobile manipulator. This paper summarizes initial results of research addressing the decoupling of position and force control for two manipulators holding a common object, and the path planning for multiple robots in a common workspace

Migration control for mobile agents based on passport and visa

Research on mobile agents has attracted much attention as this paradigm has demonstrated great potential for the next-generation e-commerce. Proper solutions to security-related problems become key factors in the successful deployment of mobile agents in e-commerce systems. We propose the use of passport and visa (P/V) for securing mobile agent migration across communities based on the SAFER e-commerce framework. P/V not only serves as up-to-date digital credentials for agent-host authentication, but also provides effective security mechanisms for online communities to control mobile agent migration. Protection for mobile agents, network hosts, and online communities is enhanced using P/V. We discuss the design issues in details and evaluate the implementation of the proposed system

On Agent-Based Software Engineering

Agent-based computing represents an exciting new synthesis both for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and, more generally, Computer Science. It has the potential to significantly improve the theory and the practice of modeling, designing, and implementing computer systems. Yet, to date, there has been little systematic analysis of what makes the agent-based approach such an appealing and powerful computational model. Moreover, even less effort has been devoted to discussing the inherent disadvantages that stem from adopting an agent-oriented view. Here both sets of issues are explored. The standpoint of this analysis is the role of agent-based software in solving complex, real-world problems. In particular, it will be argued that the development of robust and scalable software systems requires autonomous agents that can complete their objectives while situated in a dynamic and uncertain environment, that can engage in rich, high-level social interactions, and that can operate within flexible organisational structures