Ontologies Supporting Intelligent Agent-Based Assistance

Intelligent agent-based assistants are systems that try to simplify peoples work based on computers. Recent research on intelligent assistance has presented significant results in several and different situations. Building such a system is a difficult task that requires expertise in numerous artificial intelligence and engineering disciplines. A key point in this kind of system is knowledge handling. The use of ontologies for representing domain knowledge and for supporting reasoning is becoming wide-spread in many areas, including intelligent assistance. In this paper we present how ontologies can be used to support intelligent assistance in a multi-agent system context. We show how ontologies may be spread over the multi-agent system architecture, highlighting their role controlling user interaction and service description. We present in detail an ontology-based conversational interface for personal assistants, showing how to design an ontology for semantic interpretation and how the interpretation process uses it for semantic analysis. We also present how ontologies are used to describe decentralized services based on a multi-agent architecture

Social Order and Adaptability in Animal and Human Cultures as Analogues for Agent Communities: Toward a Policy-Based Approach

Abstract. In this paper we discuss some of the ways social order is maintained in animal and human realms, with the goal of enriching our thinking about mechanisms that might be employed in developing similar means of ordering communities of agents. We present examples from our current work in human-agent teamwork, and we speculate about some new directions this kind of research might take. Since communities also need to change over time to cope with changing circumstances, we also speculate on means that regulatory bodies can use to adapt. 1

Reasoning about Benefits and Costs of Interaction with Users in Real-time Decision Making Environments with Application to Healthcare Scenarios

This thesis examines the problem of having an intelligent agent reasoning about interaction with users in real-time decision making environments. Our work is motivated by the models of Fleming and Cheng, which reason about interaction sensitive to both expected quality of decision (following interaction) and cost of bothering users. In particular, we are interested in dynamic, time critical scenarios. This leads first of all to a novel process known as strategy regeneration, whereby the parameter values representing the users and the task at hand are refreshed periodically, in order to make effective decisions about which users to interact with, for the best decision making. We also introduce two new parameters that are modeled: each user's lack of expertise (with the task at hand) and the level of criticality of each task. These factors are then integrated into the process of reasoning about interaction to choose the best overall strategy, deciding which users to ask to resolve the current task. We illustrate the value of our framework for the application of decision making in hospital emergency room scenarios and offer validation of the approach, both through examples and from simulations. To sum up, we provide a framework for reasoning about interaction with users through user modeling for dynamic environments. In addition, we present some insights into how to improve the process of hospital emergency room decision making

An Architecture For Multi-Agent Systems Operating In Soft Real-Time Environments With Unexpected Events

In this thesis, we explore the topic of designing an architecture and processing algorithms for a multi-agent system, where agents need to address potential unexpected events in the environment, operating under soft real-time constraints. We first develop a classification of unexpected events into Opportunities, Barriers and Potential Causes of Failure, and outline the interaction required to support the allocation of tasks for these events. We then propose a hybrid architecture to provide for agent autonomy in the system, employing a central coordinating agent. Certain agents in the community operate autonomously, while others remain under the control of the coordinating agent. The coordinator is able to determine which agents should form teams to address unexpected events in a timely manner, and to oversee those agents as they perform their tasks. The proposed architecture avoids the overhead of negotiation amongst agent teams for the assignment of tasks, a benefit when operating under limited time and resource constraints. It also avoids the bottleneck of having one coordinating agent making all decisions before work can proceed in the community, by allowing some agents to work independently. We illustrate the potential usefulness of the framework by describing an implementation of a simulator loosely based on that used for the RoboCup Rescue Simulation League contest. The implementation provides a set of simulated computers, each running a simple soft real-time operating system. On top of this basic simulation we implement the model described above and test it against two different search-and-rescue scenarios. From our experiments, we observe that our architecture is able to operate in dynamic and real-time environments, and can handle, in an appropriate and timely manner, any unexpected events that occur. We also comment on the value of our proposed approach for designing adjustable autonomy multi-agent systems and for specific environments such as robotics, where reducing the overall level of communication within the system is crucial

Conceptualización de espacios virtuales de trabajo

La evolución de la calidad de las comunicaciones basadas en la tecnología de Internet es la base de la tendencia de desarrollo de los espacios virtuales de trabajo. Como una familia emergente de aplicaciones a desarrollar, necesita herramientas para el proceso de conceptualización como entrada de los procesos de diseño. En esta tesis se proponen formalismos de modelado de interacción entre personas para Espacios Virtuales de Trabajo. Con base en estos formalismos de modelado de interacciones, se presenta un Proceso de Conceptualización de Espacios Virtuales de Trabajo orientado a cubrir las necesidades específicas de interacción, y se describe el conjunto de técnicas creadas para el desarrollo de cada tarea del proceso de conceptualización.The improvement on evolution of quality of communications based on Internet technology is the base of the trend of development of free Virtual Workspaces. As an emerging family of applications to be developed, needs tools for conceptualizing process as input of design processes. The thesis proposes formalisms for modelling interactions among persons in Virtual Work Spaces. Based on the proposed formalisms for modelling interactions, is presented a Conceptualization Process of Virtual Work Spaces oriented to cover specific interaction needs, and is described the set of techniques created to develop each conceptualization task of presented process.Facultad de Informátic

Supporting group interaction among humans and autonomous agents

An important aspect of interaction among groups of humans and software agents is supporting collaboration among these heterogeneous agents while they operate remotely and communicate asynchronously. We are developing an architecture that supports multiple humans interacting with multiple automated control agents in such a manner. We are evaluating this architecture with a group consisting of the crew of a space-based vehicle and the automated software agents controlling the vehicle systems. Such agent interaction is modeled as a loosely coordinated group because this model minimizes agent commitment to group goals and constraints while addressing a significant portion of crew and control agent group behaviors. In this paper we give background on human interaction with space-base