Software agents in support of human argument mapping

This paper reports progress in realizing human-agent argumentation, which we argue will be part of future Computer-Supported Collaborative Argumentation (CSCA) tools. With a particular interest in argument mapping, we present two investigations demonstrating how a particular agent-oriented language and architecture can augment CSCA: (i) the use of the IBIS formalism enabling Brahms agents to simulate argumentation, and (ii) the extension of the Compendium tool by integrating it with Brahms agents tasked with detecting related discourse elsewhere

Méthodologie d'éco-conception orientée utilisation.

En intégrant le cycle de vie d'un bien dans son processus de développement, l'éco-conception permet d'améliorer la performance environnementale de ce futur produit. La combinaison, dans cette thèse, des notions de la conception centrée utilisateur et de la pensée cycle de vie, permet de proposer une méthode pour l'intégration de la phase d'utilisation en éco-conception. La méthode repose sur la proposition de nouveaux modèles pour représenter l'utilisation adaptés aux spécificités de l'éco-conception. A partir du modèle de produit, un modèle de la phase d'utilisation, connectée aux phases de distribution et de fin de vie, permet d'associer l'utilisation du produit à son cycle de vie complet. Le modèle de contexte permet de positionner la performance environnementale du produit en utilisation par rapport à des paramètres associés à l'utilisateur et à l'environnement d'utilisation. L'évaluation environnementale du scénario d'utilisation regroupant tous ces modèles permet d'adapter les stratégies d'amélioration de la méthode à l'utilisation d'un produit en conception. Une application de la démarche à la re-conception d'un réfrigérateur pour la France et le Brésil permet d'illustrer le fonctionnement de la méthode.By integrating product life cycle into the developement process, ecodesign enables the environnemental improvement of the product to be. The combination of user centred design proposition and life cycle thinking allows us to propose a method for use phase integration in ecodesign. This method is built on new models to represent product use that are compatible with ecodesign specificity. Based on the product model, the use phase model, which is connected to the distribution and end-of-life phases, facilitates the attachment of product use to the complete life cycle. Context model aims at possitionning the product use environmental performance according to influencing parameters related to the user and it environment. Environmental assessment is made based on the use scenario, a combination of the three previous models. This assessment enables to adapt the improvements strategies to the specificity of a product use phase. A case study has been perform to illustrate the capability of the new proposal to ecodesign a refrigerator for Brazil and for France.SAVOIE-SCD - Bib.électronique (730659901) / SudocGRENOBLE1/INP-Bib.électronique (384210012) / SudocGRENOBLE2/3-Bib.électronique (384219901) / SudocSudocFranceF

Work Practice Simulation of Complex Human-Automation Systems in Safety Critical Situations: The Brahms Generalized berlingen Model

The transition from the current air traffic system to the next generation air traffic system will require the introduction of new automated systems, including transferring some functions from air traffic controllers to on-board automation. This report describes a new design verification and validation (V&V) methodology for assessing aviation safety. The approach involves a detailed computer simulation of work practices that includes people interacting with flight-critical systems. The research is part of an effort to develop new modeling and verification methodologies that can assess the safety of flight-critical systems, system configurations, and operational concepts. The 2002 Ueberlingen mid-air collision was chosen for analysis and modeling because one of the main causes of the accident was one crew's response to a conflict between the instructions of the air traffic controller and the instructions of TCAS, an automated Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System on-board warning system. It thus furnishes an example of the problem of authority versus autonomy. It provides a starting point for exploring authority/autonomy conflict in the larger system of organization, tools, and practices in which the participants' moment-by-moment actions take place. We have developed a general air traffic system model (not a specific simulation of berlingen events), called the Brahms Generalized Ueberlingen Model (Brahms-GUeM). Brahms is a multi-agent simulation system that models people, tools, facilities/vehicles, and geography to simulate the current air transportation system as a collection of distributed, interactive subsystems (e.g., airports, air-traffic control towers and personnel, aircraft, automated flight systems and air-traffic tools, instruments, crew). Brahms-GUeM can be configured in different ways, called scenarios, such that anomalous events that contributed to the berlingen accident can be modeled as functioning according to requirements or in an anomalous condition, as occurred during the accident. Brahms-GUeM thus implicitly defines a class of scenarios, which include as an instance what occurred at berlingen. Brahms-GUeM is a modeling framework enabling "what if" analysis of alternative work system configurations and thus facilitating design of alternative operations concepts. It enables subsequent adaption (reusing simulation components) for modeling and simulating NextGen scenarios. This project demonstrates that BRAHMS provides the capacity to model the complexity of air transportation systems, going beyond idealized and simple flights to include for example the interaction of pilots and ATCOs. The research shows clearly that verification and validation must include the entire work system, on the one hand to check that mechanisms exist to handle failures of communication and alerting subsystems and/or failures of people to notice, comprehend, or communicate problematic (unsafe) situations; but also to understand how people must use their own judgment in relating fallible systems like TCAS to other sources of information and thus to evaluate how the unreliability of automation affects system safety. The simulation shows in particular that distributed agents (people and automated systems) acting without knowledge of each others' actions can create a complex, dynamic system whose interactive behavior is unexpected and is changing too quickly to comprehend and control

Modélisation du comportement humain réactif et délibératif avec une approche multi-agent pour la gestion énergétique dans le bâtiment

Energy consumption in buildings is affected by various factors including its physical characteristics, the appliances inside, and the outdoor environment, etc. However, inhabitants’ behaviour that determines the global energy consumption must not be forgotten. In most of the previous works and simulation tools, human behaviour is modelled as occupancy profiles. In this thesis the focus is more on detailed behaviour representation, particularly the cognitive, reactive, and deliberative mechanisms. The inhabitants’ dynamic behaviour is modelled and co-simulated together with the physical aspects of a building and an energy management system. The analysis of different household appliances has revealed that energy consumption patterns are highly associated with inhabitants’ behaviours. Data analysis of inhabitants’ actions and appliances’ consumptions is used to derive a model of inhabitants’ behaviour that impacts the energy consumption. This model represents the cognitive mechanisms that provide causes that motivate the actions, including the communication with other inhabitants. An approach based on multi-agent systems is developed along with a methodology for parameter tuning in the proposed behaviour model. These tools are used to co-simulate, not only the physical characteristics of the building, the reactive behaviour that is sensitive to physical data, and deliberative behaviour of the inhabitants, but also the building energy management system. The energy management system allows the direct adjustment of the building parameters or simply giving advice to the inhabitants. The impact of different types of inhabitants’ behaviours, with and without the inclusion of an energy management system is analyzed. This work opens new perspectives not only in the building simulation and in the validation of energy management systems but also in the representation of buildings in the smart grid where signals can be sent to end users advising them to modulate their consumption.La consommation énergétique dans le secteur bâtiment dépend de diverses facteurs parmi lesquels ses caractéristiques physique, ses équipements, l’environnement extérieur, etc… mais il ne faut pas oublier le comportement des habitants qui est déterminant pour la consommation énergétique globale. Or, la plupart des travaux et outils représentent les occupants par des profils d’occupation. Cette thèse s’intéresse à la représentation plus détaillée du comportement des occupants, en particulier les mécanismes cognitifs, réactifs et délibératifs. Le comportement dynamique des occupants est modélisé et co-simulé avec les aspects physiques et des éventuels systèmes de gestion énergétique. L’analyse de la consommation de différents équipements électroménagers met en évidence que le consommation énergétique est très dépendante des comportements des occupants. L’analyse des consommations et des actions des habitants permet d’élaborer un modèle du comportement des occupants impactant la consommation énergétique. Le modèle représente des mécanismes cognitifs, qui représente les causes qui motivent les actions, incluant des échange avec d’autres acteurs humains. Une approche à base d’agents logiciels a été développée. Outre les aspects techniques, une méthodologie de réglage des paramètres des modèles de comportement est proposée. Ces outils sont utilisés pour réaliser une co-simulation représentant la physique du bâtiment, le comportement réactif, c’est-à-dire sensible aux données physiques, et délibératif des habitants mais aussi un système de gestion énergétique qui peut ajuster directement la configuration du logement ou simplement conseiller ces occupants. L’impact de différents types de comportements, avec et sans gestionnaire énergétique est analysé. Ces travaux ouvrent de nouvelles perspectives dans la simulation bâtiment, dans la validation de gestionnaires énergétiques mais aussi dans la représentation des bâtiments dans les réseaux d’énergie dits intelligents, dans lesquels des signaux peuvent être envoyés aux utilisateurs finaux pour les inviter à moduler leur consommation

Practice-centred e-health system design for cross-boundary clinical decision support

The idea of cross-boundary clinical decision support has the potential to transform the design of future work environments for e-health through a connected healthcare system that allows for harnessing of information and peer opinion across geographical boundaries for better decision-making. The trouble, however, is that the use of healthcare information in decision-making usually occurs within the context of a complex structure of clinical work practices that is often shaped by a wide range of factors, including organisational culture, local work contexts, socially constructed traditions of actions, experiences and patients’ circumstances. They vary across geographical boundaries, and have remained largely unaccounted for in the design of current e-health systems. As a result, achieving the visions of e-health, particularly in relation to cross-boundary clinical decision support, requires a rethinking of key clinical and organisational processes in a manner that accommodates work practice as a fundamental part of how clinicians work and make decisions in the real-world. This thesis investigates the concept of work practice as a design requirement for cross-boundary clinical decision support systems in e-health. It is argued that the task of enabling informed decision support across geographical boundaries in e-health can be enhanced through an understanding, and a formal characterisation, of work practices in various healthcare work contexts, and a specification of how practice can be used, managed and transformed to suit various clinical problem situations and patients’ needs. This research takes a clinical practice-centred approach to inform e-health system design, and draws on the concept of work practice and cultural-historical theory in social science as well as situation awareness in order to describe the local traditions of actions that guide clinicians’ work in the real world. It contributes a coherent conceptual architecture comprising a practice-centred awareness model for cross-boundary awareness, a frame-based technique, named PracticeFrame, for formalising and representing work practice for system design, and ContextMorph, for adaptively transforming a suggestion across work boundaries to suit a user’s local work context and practices. An in-depth user-informed requirements capture was used to gain an understanding of clinical work practices for designing e-health system for cross-boundary decision support. A proof of concept prototype, named CaDHealth, which is based on the Brahms work practice modelling tool and includes a work practice visualisation model, named the practice display, was developed and used to conduct user-based evaluation. The evaluation revealed that incorporating practice-centred awareness enhances usefulness, acceptance and user adoption of e-health systems for cross-boundary clinical decision support