12,262 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
mPower: A component-based development framework for multi-agent systems to support business processes
One of the obstacles preventing the widespread adoption of multi-agent systems in industry is the difficulty of implementing heterogeneous interactions among participating agents via asynchronous messages. This difficulty arises from the need to understand how to combine elements of various content languages, ontologies, and interaction protocols in order to construct meaningful and appropriate messages. In this paper mPower, a component-based layered framework for easing the development of multi-agent systems, is described, and the facility for customising the components for reuse in similar domains is explained. The framework builds on the JADE-LEAP platform, which provides a homogeneous layer over diverse operating systems and hardware devices, and allows ubiquitous deployment of applications built on multi-agent systems both in wired and wireless environments. The use of the framework to develop mPowermobile , a multi-agent system to support mobile workforces, is reported
Towards adaptive multi-robot systems: self-organization and self-adaptation
Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.The development of complex systems ensembles that operate in uncertain environments is a major challenge. The reason for this is that system designers are not able to fully specify the system during specification and development and before it is being deployed. Natural swarm systems enjoy similar characteristics, yet, being self-adaptive and being able to self-organize, these systems show beneficial emergent behaviour. Similar concepts can be extremely helpful for artificial systems, especially when it comes to multi-robot scenarios, which require such solution in order to be applicable to highly uncertain real world application. In this article, we present a comprehensive overview over state-of-the-art solutions in emergent systems, self-organization, self-adaptation, and robotics. We discuss these approaches in the light of a framework for multi-robot systems and identify similarities, differences missing links and open gaps that have to be addressed in order to make this framework possible
An agent-based fuzzy cognitive map approach to the strategic marketing planning for industrial firms
This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Industrial Marketing Management. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2013 Elsevier B.V.Industrial marketing planning is a typical example of an unstructured decision making problem due to the large number of variables to consider and the uncertainty imposed on those variables. Although abundant studies identified barriers and facilitators of effective industrial marketing planning in practice, the literature still lacks practical tools and methods that marketing managers can use for the task. This paper applies fuzzy cognitive maps (FCM) to industrial marketing planning. In particular, agent based inference method is proposed to overcome dynamic relationships, time lags, and reusability issues of FCM evaluation. MACOM simulator also is developed to help marketing managers conduct what-if scenarios to see the impacts of possible changes on the variables defined in an FCM that represents industrial marketing planning problem. The simulator is applied to an industrial marketing planning problem for a global software service company in South Korea. This study has practical implication as it supports marketing managers for industrial marketing planning that has large number of variables and their cause–effect relationships. It also contributes to FCM theory by providing an agent based method for the inference of FCM. Finally, MACOM also provides academics in the industrial marketing management discipline with a tool for developing and pre-verifying a conceptual model based on qualitative knowledge of marketing practitioners.Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (Korea
Methodologies for self-organising systems:a SPEM approach
We define ’SPEM fragments’ of five methods for developing self-organising multi-agent systems. Self-organising traffic lights controllers provide an application scenario
Aspect-oriented interaction in multi-organisational web-based systems
Separation of concerns has been presented as a promising tool to tackle the design of complex systems in which
cross-cutting properties that do not fit into the scope of a class must be satisfied. Unfortunately, current proposals
assume that objects interact by means of object-oriented method calls, which implies that they embed interactions with
others into their functional code. This makes them dependent on this interaction model, and makes it difficult to reuse
them in a context in which another interaction model is more suited, e.g., tuple spaces, multiparty meetings, ports, and
so forth. In this paper, we show that functionality can be described separately from the interaction model used, which
helps enhance reusability of functional code and coordination patterns. Our proposal is innovative in that it is the first
that achieves a clear separation between functionality and interaction in an aspect-oriented manner. In order to show
that it is feasible, we adapted the multiparty interaction model to the context of multiorganisational web-based systems
and developed a class framework to build business objects whose performance rates comparably to handmade implementations;
the development time, however, decreases significantly.Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y TecnologÃa TIC2000-1106-C02-0
Separating Agent-Functioning and Inter-Agent Coordination by Activated Modules: The DECOMAS Architecture
The embedding of self-organizing inter-agent processes in distributed
software applications enables the decentralized coordination system elements,
solely based on concerted, localized interactions. The separation and
encapsulation of the activities that are conceptually related to the
coordination, is a crucial concern for systematic development practices in
order to prepare the reuse and systematic integration of coordination processes
in software systems. Here, we discuss a programming model that is based on the
externalization of processes prescriptions and their embedding in Multi-Agent
Systems (MAS). One fundamental design concern for a corresponding execution
middleware is the minimal-invasive augmentation of the activities that affect
coordination. This design challenge is approached by the activation of agent
modules. Modules are converted to software elements that reason about and
modify their host agent. We discuss and formalize this extension within the
context of a generic coordination architecture and exemplify the proposed
programming model with the decentralized management of (web) service
infrastructures
A Framework for Design and Composition of Semantic Web Services
Semantic Web Services (SWS) are Web Services (WS)
whose description is semantically enhanced with markup
languages (e.g., OWL-S). This semantic description will enable external agents and programs to discover, compose and
invoke SWSs. However, as a previous step to the specification of SWSs in a language, it must be designed at a conceptual level to guarantee its correctness and avoid
inconsistencies among its internal components. In this
paper, we present a framework for design and (semi)
automatic composition of SWSs at a language-independent
and knowledge level. This framework is based on a stack of
ontologies that (1) describe the different parts of a SWS;
and (2) contain a set of axioms that are really design rules to be verified by the ontology instances. Based on these ontologies, design and composition of SWSs can be viewed as the correct instantiation of the ontologies themselves. Once these instances have been created they will be exported to SWS languages such as OWL-S
Systematically Engineering Self-Organizing Systems: The SodekoVS Approach
Self-organizing systems promise new software quality attributes that
are very hard to obtain using standard software engineering approaches. In accordance
with the visions of e.g. autonomic computing and organic computing,
self-organizing systems promote self-adaptability as one major property helping to
realize software that can manage itself at runtime. In this respect, self-adaptability
can be seen as a necessary foundation for realizing e.g. self* properties such as self-configuration or self-protection. However, the systematic development of systems
exhibiting such properties challenges current development practices. The SodekoVS
project addresses the challenge to purposefully engineer adaptivity by proposing a
new approach that considers the system architecture as well as the software development
methodology as integral intertwined aspects for system construction. Following
the proposed process, self-organizing dynamics, inspired by biological, physical
and social systems, can be integrated into applications by composing modules
that distribute feedback control structures among system entities. These compositions
support hierarchical as well as completely decentralized solutions without a
single point of failure. This novel development conception is supported by a reference
architecture, a tailored programming model as well as a library of ready to use
self-organizing patterns. The key challenges, recent research activities, application
scenarios as well as intermediate results are discussed
- …