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Autonomous Agents for Business Process Management

Traditional approaches to managing business processes are often inadequate for large-scale organisation-wide, dynamic settings. However, since Internet and Intranet technologies have become widespread, an increasing number of business processes exhibit these properties. Therefore, a new approach is needed. To this end, we describe the motivation, conceptualization, design, and implementation of a novel agent-based business process management system. The key advance of our system is that responsibility for enacting various components of the business process is delegated to a number of autonomous problem solving agents. To enact their role, these agents typically interact and negotiate with other agents in order to coordinate their actions and to buy in the services they require. This approach leads to a system that is significantly more agile and robust than its traditional counterparts. To help demonstrate these benefits, a companion paper describes the application of our system to a real-world problem faced by British Telecom

A theoretical and computational basis for CATNETS

The main content of this report is the identification and definition of market mechanisms for Application Layer Networks (ALNs). On basis of the structured Market Engineering process, the work comprises the identification of requirements which adequate market mechanisms for ALNs have to fulfill. Subsequently, two mechanisms for each, the centralized and the decentralized case are described in this document. These build the theoretical foundation for the work within the following two years of the CATNETS project. --Grid Computing

Best Practice in Performance Budgeting

This paper seeks to identify the best practice principles for performance budgeting. It describes and analyses the principle mechanisms by which performance budgeting systems attempt to link results and resources. These mechanisms are evaluated, drawing amongst other things upon analysis of the underlying relationship between results and resources. The potential scope for the integration of performance management and budgeting is considered.

Theoretical and Computational Basis for Economical Ressource Allocation in Application Layer Networks - Annual Report Year 1

This paper identifies and defines suitable market mechanisms for Application Layer Networks (ALNs). On basis of the structured Market Engineering process, the work comprises the identification of requirements which adequate market mechanisms for ALNs have to fulfill. Subsequently, two mechanisms for each, the centralized and the decentralized case are described in this document. --Grid Computing

Programming the Interactions of Collective Adaptive Systems by Relying on Attribute-based Communication

Collective adaptive systems are new emerging computational systems consisting of a large number of interacting components and featuring complex behaviour. These systems are usually distributed, heterogeneous, decentralised and interdependent, and are operating in dynamic and possibly unpredictable environments. Finding ways to understand and design these systems and, most of all, to model the interactions of their components, is a difficult but important endeavour. In this article we propose a language-based approach for programming the interactions of collective-adaptive systems by relying on attribute-based communication; a paradigm that permits a group of partners to communicate by considering their run-time properties and capabilities. We introduce AbC, a foundational calculus for attribute-based communication and show how its linguistic primitives can be used to program a complex and sophisticated variant of the well-known problem of Stable Allocation in Content Delivery Networks. Also other interesting case studies, from the realm of collective-adaptive systems, are considered. We also illustrate the expressive power of attribute-based communication by showing the natural encoding of other existing communication paradigms into AbC

Human Performance Modeling: Analysis of the Effects of Manned-Unmanned Teaming on Pilot Workload and Mission Performance

Due to the advent of autonomous technology coupled with the extreme expense of manned aircraft, the Department of Defense (DoD) has increased interest in developing affordable, expendable Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to become autonomous wingmen for jet fighters in mosaic warfare. Like a mosaic that forms a whole picture out of smaller pieces, battlefield commanders can utilize disaggregated capabilities, such as Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T), to operate in contested environments. With a single pilot controlling both the UAVs and manned aircraft, it may be challenging for pilots to manage all systems should the system design not be conducive to a steady state level of workload. To understand the potential effects of MUM-T on the pilot’s cognitive workload, an Improved Performance Research Integration Tool (IMPRINT) Pro pilot workload model was developed. The model predicts the cognitive workload of the pilot in a simulated environment when interacting with both the cockpit and multiple UAVs to provide insight into the effect of Human-Agent Interactions (HAI) and increasing autonomous control abstraction on the pilot’s cognitive workload and mission performance. This research concluded that peaks in workload occur for the pilot during periods of high communications load and this communication may be degraded or delayed during air-to-air engagements. Nonetheless, autonomous control of the UAVs through a combination of Vector Steering, Pilot Directed Engagements, and Tactical Battle Management would enable pilots to successfully command up to 3 UAVs as well as their own aircraft against 4 enemy targets, while maintaining acceptable pilot cognitive workload in an air-to-air mission scenario