Development of an ontology for a multi-agent system controlling a production line

Nowadays, the industry is very demanding in terms of customized high quality products at lower costs. Furthermore, the customers intention of having the product as soon as possible, and companies having the restriction of time, which in this case is a crucial variable, also increases the nal product cost. For this reason, it becomes unacceptable the development of solutions based on centralized implementations, which do not provide robustness, exibility and recon gurability. Therefore, the implementation of multi-agent based solutions ful l the described requirements leading to a more exible, robust and agile system. This work presents the development of an important issue concerning the cooperation between the distributed agents, since one of them only has a partial view of the system. In this way the ontologies are crucial to guarantee a common structure of the knowledge exchanged among the agents. The objective of this work is the development of an ontology integrating process and quality levels to be used to represent the knowledge exchanged in a multi-agent system solution for a production line producing washing machines. Consequently, the agents exchanging shared knowledge will support better and more accurate decisions. The contribution of this work comprises the implementation of a multi-agent system, the appropriate ontology formulation as well as its implementation, which makes the integration of an industrial production line more versatile and more customized. Naturally, with this project, it is created a recon gurable and highly interoperable system. Hoje em dia, a indústria é muito exigente em termos de produtos personalizados de alta qualidade a custos baixos. Além disso, a intenção dos clientes é ter o produto logo que possível, assim as empresas têm uma limitação de tempo, que neste caso é uma variável importante, também aumenta o custo do produto nal. Por esta razão, torna-se inaceitável o desenvolvimento de soluções baseadas em implementa ções centralizadas, que não proporcionam a exibilidade, robustez e recon gurabilidade. Portanto, a implementação de soluções baseadas em multi-agente cumprem os requisitos descritos levando a um sistema mais exível, robusto e ágil. Este trabalho representa o desenvolvimento de uma questão importante relativa à coopera ção entre os agentes distribuídos, uma vez que apenas um deles tem uma visão parcial do sistema. Desta forma, as ontologias são cruciais para garantir uma estrutura comum de conhecimento trocadas entre os agentes. O objectivo deste trabalho é o desenvolvimento de uma ontologia da integração de processos e qualidade a serem utilizados para representar o conhecimento trocado em uma solução de sistema multi-agente para uma linha de produção de máquinas de lavar. Consequentemente, os agentes trocam conhecimento compartilhado que irão suportar decisões melhores e mais precisas. A contribuição deste trabalho consiste na implementação de um sistema multi-agente, a adequada formulação da ontologia, bem como a sua implementação, o que torna a integração de uma linha de produção industrial mais versátil e mais personalizada. Naturalmente, com este projecto, é criado um sistema recon gurável e altamente interoperável

From Infology to Artificial Science

This paper studies the ideas of two actors in the Scandinavian field of Information Systems development. It analyzes the writings of Börje Langefors and Bo Dahlbom in the 1980s and 1990s, and focuses on their collaboration resulting in the publication of Langefors’ Essays on Infology. Langefors was at that time honored as the founder of the information systems discipline in Scandinavia, but had also been criticized by several authors in the field. Dahlbom was a philosopher who had ventured into information systems development in the late 1980s. At the brink of the 1980s significant changes in both computer technology and Western society were evident. Computer technology saw a development from mainframe computing towards networked computing, as well as the advent of the home computer and the beginnings of the internet. Western societies changed significantly in the same period. I analyze the writings of Langefors using Paul N. Edwards concept of the cybernetic paradigm as a framework. Taking this as my starting point, I investigate whether the two writers can be said to operate within the cybernetic paradigm. Furthermore I interpret their theories along two axes. One seeing a shift from modernity to post-modernity, and one seeing a shift from humanism to post-humanism. I argue that both Langefors and Dahlbom can be understood as part of a cybernetic paradigm, although not univocally. Langefors can largely be interpreted as a product of Swedish post-war modernity, while Dahlbom related to a “postmodern condition” in Lyotard’s terms. As well as investigating the two authors as actors in the information systems development field, I investigate whether their theories also could be read as philosophy. I take Louis Althusser's notion of “the spontaneous philosophy of scientists” as my starting point for this discussion. I argue that Langefors and Dahlbom can be understood as philosophers from two different perspectives. Langefors took his experiences as a practitioner and generalized them into philosophy, while Dahlbom wanted to bring philosophical reflection to the practice of systems development. Finally, I ask what motivated Dahlbom and Langefors, two very different theorists with very different backgrounds, to collaborate. My findings indicate that Dahlbom was partly motivated by his intention of developing a “new informatics” in Sweden, and saw Langefors as an inspiration for this project. Both of the authors were motivated by seeing common adversaries in the information systems development field

Development of a Digital Twin of a Flexible Manufacturing System for Assisted Learning

Learning Factories provide a propitious learning environment for nurturing production related competencies. However, several problems continue to plague their widespread adoption. Further, assessment of attained competencies continue to remain a concern. This study proposes the use of digital twins as an alternative learning platform for production engineering courses. It is proposed that in the context of manufacturing pedagogy, digital twins of manufacturing processes can play a significant role in delivering efficacious learning experiences. The high-fidelity replication of the physical system aids with reflective observation of the entailed processes in the greatest possible detail, fostering concrete learning experiences. An iterative research methodology towards modelling a pedagogic digital twin is undertaken to build a learning environment that is characterized by ontologies that model learning objectives, learning outcomes and assessment of the said outcomes. This environment facilitates automated assessment of the learner via ontological reasoning mechanisms. The underlying schema takes into account the learner’s profile and focuses on competency attainment through reasoning of behavioural assessment of aligned learning outcomes. The thesis presents also a case study that demonstrates how the learner’s competency level may be evaluated and compared with other learners thus warranting its use a learning tool that proves beneficial in an academic setting

AI for Everyone?

We are entering a new era of technological determinism and solutionism in which governments and business actors are seeking data-driven change, assuming that Artificial Intelligence is now inevitable and ubiquitous. But we have not even started asking the right questions, let alone developed an understanding of the consequences. Urgently needed is debate that asks and answers fundamental questions about power. This book brings together critical interrogations of what constitutes AI, its impact and its inequalities in order to offer an analysis of what it means for AI to deliver benefits for everyone. The book is structured in three parts: Part 1, AI: Humans vs. Machines, presents critical perspectives on human-machine dualism. Part 2, Discourses and Myths About AI, excavates metaphors and policies to ask normative questions about what is ‘desirable’ AI and what conditions make this possible. Part 3, AI Power and Inequalities, discusses how the implementation of AI creates important challenges that urgently need to be addressed. Bringing together scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and regional contexts, this book offers a vital intervention on one of the most hyped concepts of our times

AI for Everyone? Critical Perspectives

We are entering a new era of technological determinism and solutionism in which governments and business actors are seeking data-driven change, assuming that Artificial Intelligence is now inevitable and ubiquitous. But we have not even started asking the right questions, let alone developed an understanding of the consequences. Urgently needed is debate that asks and answers fundamental questions about power. This book brings together critical interrogations of what constitutes AI, its impact and its inequalities in order to offer an analysis of what it means for AI to deliver benefits for everyone. The book is structured in three parts: Part 1, AI: Humans vs. Machines, presents critical perspectives on human-machine dualism. Part 2, Discourses and Myths About AI, excavates metaphors and policies to ask normative questions about what is ‘desirable’ AI and what conditions make this possible. Part 3, AI Power and Inequalities, discusses how the implementation of AI creates important challenges that urgently need to be addressed. Bringing together scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and regional contexts, this book offers a vital intervention on one of the most hyped concepts of our times

Persuasive Intelligence: On the Construction of Rhetor-Ethical Cognitive Machines

This work concerns the rhetorical and moral agency of machines, offering paths forward in machine ethics as well as problematizing the issue through the development and use of an interdisciplinary framework informed by rhetoric, philosophy of mind, media studies and historical narrative. I argue that cognitive machines of the past as well as those today, such as rapidly improving autonomous vehicles, are unable to make moral decisions themselves foremost because a moral agent must first be a rhetorical agent, capable of persuading and of being persuaded. I show that current machines, artificially intelligent or otherwise, and especially digital computers, are primarily concerned with control, whereas persuasive behavior requires an understanding of possibility. Further, this dissertation connects rhetorical agency and moral agency (what I call a rhetor-ethical constitution) by way of the Heraclitean notion of syllapsis ( grasping ), a mode of cognition that requires an agent to practice analysis and synthesis at once, cognizing the whole and its parts simultaneously. This argument does not, however, indicate that machines are devoid of ethical or rhetorical activity or future agency. To the contrary, the larger purpose of developing this theoretical framework is to provide avenues of research, exploration and experimentation in machine ethics and persuasion that have been overlooked or ignored thus far by adhering to restricted disciplinary programs; and, given the ontological nature of the ephemeral binary that drives digital computation, I show that at least in principle, computers share the syllaptic operating principle required for rhetor-ethical decisions and action

AI for Everyone?

We are entering a new era of technological determinism and solutionism in which governments and business actors are seeking data-driven change, assuming that Artificial Intelligence is now inevitable and ubiquitous. But we have not even started asking the right questions, let alone developed an understanding of the consequences. Urgently needed is debate that asks and answers fundamental questions about power. This book brings together critical interrogations of what constitutes AI, its impact and its inequalities in order to offer an analysis of what it means for AI to deliver benefits for everyone. The book is structured in three parts: Part 1, AI: Humans vs. Machines, presents critical perspectives on human-machine dualism. Part 2, Discourses and Myths About AI, excavates metaphors and policies to ask normative questions about what is ‘desirable’ AI and what conditions make this possible. Part 3, AI Power and Inequalities, discusses how the implementation of AI creates important challenges that urgently need to be addressed. Bringing together scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and regional contexts, this book offers a vital intervention on one of the most hyped concepts of our times

Wired Bodies. New Perspectives on the Machine-Organism Analogy

The machine-organism analogy has played a pivotal role in the history of Western philosophy and science. Notwithstanding its apparent simplicity, it hides complex epistemological issues about the status of both organism and machine and the nature of their interaction. What is the real object of this analogy: organisms as a whole, their parts or, rather, bodily functions? How can the machine serve as a model for interpreting biological phenomena, cognitive processes, or more broadly the social and cultural transformations of the relations between individuals, and between individuals and the environments in which they live. Wired bodies. New perspectives on the machine-organism analogy provides the reader with some of the latest perspectives on this vast debate, addressing three major topics: 1) the development of a ‘mechanistic’ framework in medicine and biology; 2) the methodological issues underlying the use of ‘simulation’ in cognitive science; 3) the interaction between humans and machines according to 20th century epistemology

Wired Bodies. New Perspectives on the Machine-Organism Analogy

The machine-organism analogy has played a pivotal role in the history of Western philosophy and science. Notwithstanding its apparent simplicity, it hides complex epistemological issues about the status of both organism and machine and the nature of their interaction. What is the real object of this analogy: organisms as a whole, their parts or, rather, bodily functions? How can the machine serve as a model for interpreting biological phenomena, cognitive processes, or more broadly the social and cultural transformations of the relations between individuals, and between individuals and the environments in which they live? Wired Bodies. New Perspectives on the Machine-Organism Analogy provides the reader with some of the latest perspectives on this vast debate, addressing three major topics:1) the development of a ‘mechanistic’ framework in medicine and biology; 2) the methodological issues underlying the use of ‘simulation’ in cognitive science; 3) the interaction between humans and machines according to 20th-century epistemology