BUSINESS INTELLIGENT AGENTS FOR ENTERPRISE APPLICATION

Fierce competition in a market increasingly crowded and frequent changes in consumer requirements are the main forces that will cause companies to change their current organization and management. One solution is to move to open architectures and virtual type, which requires addressing business methods and technologies using distributed multi-agent systems. Intelligent agents are one of the most important areas of artificial intelligence that deals with the development of hardware and software systems able to reason, learn to recognize natural language, speak, make decisions, to recognize objects in the working environment etc. Thus in this paper, we presented some aspects of smart business, intelligent agents, intelligent systems, intelligent systems models, and I especially emphasized their role in managing business processes, which have become highly complex systems that are in a permanent change to meet the requirements of timely decision making. The purpose of this paper is to prove that there is no business without using the integration Business Process Management, Web Services and intelligent agents.business intelligence, intelligent agents, intelligent systems, management, enterprise, web services

Dagstuhl News January - December 2008

"Dagstuhl News" is a publication edited especially for the members of the Foundation "Informatikzentrum Schloss Dagstuhl" to thank them for their support. The News give a summary of the scientific work being done in Dagstuhl. Each Dagstuhl Seminar is presented by a small abstract describing the contents and scientific highlights of the seminar as well as the perspectives or challenges of the research topic

A Review of Platforms for the Development of Agent Systems

Agent-based computing is an active field of research with the goal of building autonomous software of hardware entities. This task is often facilitated by the use of dedicated, specialized frameworks. For almost thirty years, many such agent platforms have been developed. Meanwhile, some of them have been abandoned, others continue their development and new platforms are released. This paper presents a up-to-date review of the existing agent platforms and also a historical perspective of this domain. It aims to serve as a reference point for people interested in developing agent systems. This work details the main characteristics of the included agent platforms, together with links to specific projects where they have been used. It distinguishes between the active platforms and those no longer under development or with unclear status. It also classifies the agent platforms as general purpose ones, free or commercial, and specialized ones, which can be used for particular types of applications.Comment: 40 pages, 2 figures, 9 tables, 83 reference

Abductive Design of BDI Agent-based Digital Twins of Organizations

For a Digital Twin - a precise, virtual representation of a physical counterpart - of a human-like system to be faithful and complete, it must appeal to a notion of anthropomorphism (i.e., attributing human behaviour to non-human entities) to imitate (1) the externally visible behaviour and (2) the internal workings of that system. Although the Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) paradigm was not developed for this purpose, it has been used successfully in human modeling applications. In this sense, we introduce in this thesis the notion of abductive design of BDI agent-based Digital Twins of organizations, which builds on two powerful reasoning disciplines: reverse engineering (to recreate the visible behaviour of the target system) and goal-driven eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) (for viewing the behaviour of the target system through the lens of BDI agents). Precisely speaking, the overall problem we are trying to address in this thesis is to “Find a BDI agent program that best explains (in the sense of formal abduction) the behaviour of a target system based on its past experiences . To do so, we propose three goal-driven XAI techniques: (1) abductive design of BDI agents, (2) leveraging imperfect explanations and (3) mining belief-based explanations. The resulting approach suggests that using goal-driven XAI to generate Digital Twins of organizations in the form of BDI agents can be effective, even in a setting with limited information about the target system’s behaviour

An information assistant system for the prevention of tunnel vision in crisis management

In the crisis management environment, tunnel vision is a set of bias in decision makers’ cognitive process which often leads to incorrect understanding of the real crisis situation, biased perception of information, and improper decisions. The tunnel vision phenomenon is a consequence of both the challenges in the task and the natural limitation in a human being’s cognitive process. An information assistant system is proposed with the purpose of preventing tunnel vision. The system serves as a platform for monitoring the on-going crisis event. All information goes through the system before arrives at the user. The system enhances the data quality, reduces the data quantity and presents the crisis information in a manner that prevents or repairs the user’s cognitive overload. While working with such a system, the users (crisis managers) are expected to be more likely to stay aware of the actual situation, stay open minded to possibilities, and make proper decisions

TRAMMAS: Enhancing Communication in Multiagent Systems

Tesis por compendio[EN] Over the last years, multiagent systems have been proven to be a powerful and versatile paradigm, with a big potential when it comes to solving complex problems in dynamic and distributed environments, due to their flexible and adaptive behavior. This potential does not only come from the individual features of agents (such as autonomy, reactivity or reasoning power), but also to their capability to communicate, cooperate and coordinate in order to fulfill their goals. In fact, it is this social behavior what makes multiagent systems so powerful, much more than the individual capabilities of agents. The social behavior of multiagent systems is usually developed by means of high level abstractions, protocols and languages, which normally rely on (or at least, benefit from) agents being able to communicate and interact indirectly. However, in the development process, such high level concepts habitually become weakly supported, with mechanisms such as traditional messaging, massive broadcasting, blackboard systems or ad hoc solutions. This lack of an appropriate way to support indirect communication in actual multiagent systems compromises their potential. This PhD thesis proposes the use of event tracing as a flexible, effective and efficient support for indirect interaction and communication in multiagent systems. The main contribution of this thesis is TRAMMAS, a generic, abstract model for event tracing support in multiagent systems. The model allows all entities in the system to share their information as trace events, so that any other entity which require this information is able to receive it. Along with the model, the thesis also presents an abstract architecture, which redefines the model in terms of a set of tracing facilities that can be then easily incorporated to an actual multiagent platform. This architecture follows a service-oriented approach, so that the tracing facilities are provided in the same way than other traditional services offered by the platform. In this way, event tracing can be considered as an additional information provider for entities in the multiagent system, and as such, it can be integrated from the earliest stages of the development process.[ES] A lo largo de los últimos años, los sistemas multiagente han demostrado ser un paradigma potente y versátil, con un gran potencial a la hora de resolver problemas complejos en entornos dinámicos y distribuidos, gracias a su comportamiento flexible y adaptativo. Este potencial no es debido únicamente a las características individuales de los agentes (como son su autonomía, y su capacidades de reacción y de razonamiento), sino que también se debe a su capacidad de comunicación y cooperación a la hora de conseguir sus objetivos. De hecho, por encima de la capacidad individual de los agentes, es este comportamiento social el que dota de potencial a los sistemas multiagente. El comportamiento social de los sistemas multiagente suele desarrollarse empleando abstracciones, protocolos y lenguajes de alto nivel, los cuales, a su vez, se basan normalmente en la capacidad para comunicarse e interactuar de manera indirecta de los agentes (o como mínimo, se benefician en gran medida de dicha capacidad). Sin embargo, en el proceso de desarrollo software, estos conceptos de alto nivel son soportados habitualmente de manera débil, mediante mecanismos como la mensajería tradicional, la difusión masiva, o el uso de pizarras, o mediante soluciones totalmente ad hoc. Esta carencia de un soporte genérico y apropiado para la comunicación indirecta en los sistemas multiagente reales compromete su potencial. Esta tesis doctoral propone el uso del trazado de eventos como un soporte flexible, efectivo y eficiente para la comunicación indirecta en sistemas multiagente. La principal contribución de esta tesis es TRAMMAS, un modelo genérico y abstracto para dar soporte al trazado de eventos en sistemas multiagente. El modelo permite a cualquier entidad del sistema compartir su información en forma de eventos de traza, de tal manera que cualquier otra entidad que requiera esta información sea capaz de recibirla. Junto con el modelo, la tesis también presenta una arquitectura {abs}{trac}{ta}, que redefine el modelo como un conjunto de funcionalidades que pueden ser fácilmente incorporadas a una plataforma multiagente real. Esta arquitectura sigue un enfoque orientado a servicios, de modo que las funcionalidades de traza son ofrecidas por parte de la plataforma de manera similar a los servicios tradicionales. De esta forma, el trazado de eventos puede ser considerado como una fuente adicional de información para las entidades del sistema multiagente y, como tal, puede integrarse en el proceso de desarrollo software desde sus primeras etapas.[CA] Al llarg dels últims anys, els sistemes multiagent han demostrat ser un paradigma potent i versàtil, amb un gran potencial a l'hora de resoldre problemes complexes a entorns dinàmics i distribuïts, gràcies al seu comportament flexible i adaptatiu. Aquest potencial no és només degut a les característiques individuals dels agents (com són la seua autonomia, i les capacitats de reacció i raonament), sinó també a la seua capacitat de comunicació i cooperació a l'hora d'aconseguir els seus objectius. De fet, per damunt de la capacitat individual dels agents, es aquest comportament social el que dóna potencial als sistemes multiagent. El comportament social dels sistemes multiagent solen desenvolupar-se utilitzant abstraccions, protocols i llenguatges d'alt nivell, els quals, al seu torn, es basen normalment a la capacitat dels agents de comunicar-se i interactuar de manera indirecta (o com a mínim, es beneficien en gran mesura d'aquesta capacitat). Tanmateix, al procés de desenvolupament software, aquests conceptes d'alt nivell son suportats habitualment d'una manera dèbil, mitjançant mecanismes com la missatgeria tradicional, la difusió massiva o l'ús de pissarres, o mitjançant solucions totalment ad hoc. Aquesta carència d'un suport genèric i apropiat per a la comunicació indirecta als sistemes multiagent reals compromet el seu potencial. Aquesta tesi doctoral proposa l'ús del traçat d'esdeveniments com un suport flexible, efectiu i eficient per a la comunicació indirecta a sistemes multiagent. La principal contribució d'aquesta tesi és TRAMMAS, un model genèric i abstracte per a donar suport al traçat d'esdeveniments a sistemes multiagent. El model permet a qualsevol entitat del sistema compartir la seua informació amb la forma d'esdeveniments de traça, de tal forma que qualsevol altra entitat que necessite aquesta informació siga capaç de rebre-la. Junt amb el model, la tesi també presenta una arquitectura abstracta, que redefineix el model com un conjunt de funcionalitats que poden ser fàcilment incorporades a una plataforma multiagent real. Aquesta arquitectura segueix un enfoc orientat a serveis, de manera que les funcionalitats de traça són oferides per part de la plataforma de manera similar als serveis tradicionals. D'aquesta manera, el traçat d'esdeveniments pot ser considerat com una font addicional d'informació per a les entitats del sistema multiagent, i com a tal, pot integrar-se al procés de desenvolupament software des de les seues primeres etapes.Búrdalo Rapa, LA. (2016). TRAMMAS: Enhancing Communication in Multiagent Systems [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/61765TESISCompendi

Fog computing pour l'intégration d'agents et de services Web dans un middleware réflexif autonome

International audienceService Oriented Architecture (SOA) has emerged as a dominant architecture for interoperability between applications, by using a weak-coupled model based on the flexibility provided by Web Services, which has led to a wide range of applications, what is known as cloud computing. On the other hand, Multi-Agent System (MAS) is widely used in the industry, because it provides an appropriate solution to complex problems, in a proactive and intelligent way. Specifically, Intelligent Environments (Smart City, Smart Classroom, Cyber Physical System, and Smart Factory, among others) obtain great benefits by using both architectures, because MAS endows intelligence to the environment, while SOA enables users to interact with cloud services, which improve the capabilities of the devices deployed in the environment. Additionally, the fog computing paradigm extends the cloud computing paradigm to be closer to the things that produce and act on the intelligent environment, allowing to deal with issues like mobility, real time, low latency, geo-localization, among other aspects. In this sense, in this article we present a middleware, which not only is capable of allowing MAS and SOA to communicate in a bidirectional and transparent way, but also, it uses the fog computing paradigm autonomously, according to the context and to the system load factor. Additionally, we analyze the performance of the incorporation of the fog-computing paradigm in our middleware and compare it with other works