Agent-based hybrid framework for decision making on complex problems

Electronic commerce and the Internet have created demand for automated systems that can make complex decisions utilizing information from multiple sources. Because the information is uncertain, dynamic, distributed, and heterogeneous in nature, these systems require a great diversity of intelligent techniques including expert systems, fuzzy logic, neural networks, and genetic algorithms. However, in complex decision making, many different components or sub-tasks are involved, each of which requires different types of processing. Thus multiple such techniques are required resulting in systems called hybrid intelligent systems. That is, hybrid solutions are crucial for complex problem solving and decision making. There is a growing demand for these systems in many areas including financial investment planning, engineering design, medical diagnosis, and cognitive simulation. However, the design and development of these systems is difficult because they have a large number of parts or components that have many interactions. From a multi-agent perspective, agents in multi-agent systems (MAS) are autonomous and can engage in flexible, high-level interactions. MASs are good at complex, dynamic interactions. Thus a multi-agent perspective is suitable for modeling, design, and construction of hybrid intelligent systems. The aim of this thesis is to develop an agent-based framework for constructing hybrid intelligent systems which are mainly used for complex problem solving and decision making. Existing software development techniques (typically, object-oriented) are inadequate for modeling agent-based hybrid intelligent systems. There is a fundamental mismatch between the concepts used by object-oriented developers and the agent-oriented view. Although there are some agent-oriented methodologies such as the Gaia methodology, there is still no specifically tailored methodology available for analyzing and designing agent-based hybrid intelligent systems. To this end, a methodology is proposed, which is specifically tailored to the analysis and design of agent-based hybrid intelligent systems. The methodology consists of six models - role model, interaction model, agent model, skill model, knowledge model, and organizational model. This methodology differs from other agent-oriented methodologies in its skill and knowledge models. As good decisions and problem solutions are mainly based on adequate information, rich knowledge, and appropriate skills to use knowledge and information, these two models are of paramount importance in modeling complex problem solving and decision making. Follow the methodology, an agent-based framework for hybrid intelligent system construction used in complex problem solving and decision making was developed. The framework has several crucial characteristics that differentiate this research from others. Four important issues relating to the framework are also investigated. These cover the building of an ontology for financial investment, matchmaking in middle agents, reasoning in problem solving and decision making, and decision aggregation in MASs. The thesis demonstrates how to build a domain-specific ontology and how to access it in a MAS by building a financial ontology. It is argued that the practical performance of service provider agents has a significant impact on the matchmaking outcomes of middle agents. It is proposed to consider service provider agents\u27 track records in matchmaking. A way to provide initial values for the track records of service provider agents is also suggested. The concept of ‘reasoning with multimedia information’ is introduced, and reasoning with still image information using symbolic projection theory is proposed. How to choose suitable aggregation operations is demonstrated through financial investment application and three approaches are proposed - the stationary agent approach, the token-passing approach, and the mobile agent approach to implementing decision aggregation in MASs. Based on the framework, a prototype was built and applied to financial investment planning. This prototype consists of one serving agent, one interface agent, one decision aggregation agent, one planning agent, four decision making agents, and five service provider agents. Experiments were conducted on the prototype. The experimental results show the framework is flexible, robust, and fully workable. All agents derived from the methodology exhibit their behaviors correctly as specified

Urban Form and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The research reported in this dissertation contains three complementary and overlapping parts: One, “findings”: It assesses the factors of urban morphology that contribute to increased rates of greenhouse gas emissions per capita, and the ways they interact. It finds a significant but underrepresented set of factors, distinct from but relating the factors at the individual building scale and the scale of regional transportation systems. Two, “strategies”: It assesses the methodologies by which such findings might be put to use in identifying and achieving reductions through changes in urban design, and proposes new strategies to do so using innovative forms of design decision support tools. Three, “design decision support tools”: It then proposes a specific new technology, namely a new class of open-source scenario-modelling tool, embodied in new prototype software. The tool utilizes a new kind of “federated” web-based wiki technology incorporating design pattern languages, which was developed in collaboration with the software engineer and wiki inventor Ward Cunningham. As part of this research, it has been necessary to examine fundamental methodological questions, and to account for limitations of current data as well as current significant gaps in research. In the process, this research has made a modest contribution to the state of knowledge about additional research needed. For me, this work has also highlighted the need for urgent and effective reforms to current “business as usual” practices. The need is all the more urgent given unprecedented rates of urbanisation – much of it sprawling and resource-inefficient – taking place in many parts of the world today

Urban Form and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The research reported in this dissertation contains three complementary and overlapping parts: One, “findings”: It assesses the factors of urban morphology that contribute to increased rates of greenhouse gas emissions per capita, and the ways they interact. It finds a significant but underrepresented set of factors, distinct from but relating the factors at the individual building scale and the scale of regional transportation systems. Two, “strategies”: It assesses the methodologies by which such findings might be put to use in identifying and achieving reductions through changes in urban design, and proposes new strategies to do so using innovative forms of design decision support tools. Three, “design decision support tools”: It then proposes a specific new technology, namely a new class of open-source scenario-modelling tool, embodied in new prototype software. The tool utilizes a new kind of “federated” web-based wiki technology incorporating design pattern languages, which was developed in collaboration with the software engineer and wiki inventor Ward Cunningham. As part of this research, it has been necessary to examine fundamental methodological questions, and to account for limitations of current data as well as current significant gaps in research. In the process, this research has made a modest contribution to the state of knowledge about additional research needed. For me, this work has also highlighted the need for urgent and effective reforms to current “business as usual” practices. The need is all the more urgent given unprecedented rates of urbanisation – much of it sprawling and resource-inefficient – taking place in many parts of the world today

TOES: A Taxonomy-Based Opinion Extraction System

Feature-based opinion extraction is a task related to opinion mining and information extraction which consists of automatically extracting feature-level representations of opinions from subjective texts. In the last years, some researchers have proposed domain-independent solutions to this task. Most of them identify the feature being reviewed by a set of words from the text. Rather than that, we propose a domainadaptable opinion extraction system based on feature taxonomies (a semantic representation of the opinable parts and attributes of an object) which extracts feature-level opinions and maps them into the taxonomy. The opinions thus obtained can be easily aggregated for summarization and visualization. In order to increase precision and recall of the extraction system, we define a set of domain-specific resources which capture valuable knowledge about how people express opinions on each feature from the taxonomy for a given domain. These resources are automatically induced from a set of annotated documents. The modular design of our architecture allows building either domain-specific or domainindependent opinion extraction systems. According to some experimental results, using the domain-specific resources leads to far better precision and recall, at the expense of some manual effort

Collaborative design support : workshops to stimulate interaction and knowledge exchange between practitioners

The focus of this research project is on the effectiveness of Collaborative Design activities of practitioners. More specifically, the research project focuses to interaction and knowledge exchange between two specific practitioners, Architects and Contractors, with a different educational background working together to create Integral Designs for roofs. Integral Designs are designs that can fulfill the requirements from the built environment and comprise realization-knowledge. The contribution of realization-knowledge in the design is necessary because it will prevent failures, realization costs and affects durability of the building and the built environment. The choice for roofs is based on the fact that roofs became an important location for the placement of ‘innovative’ renewable energy systems and solutions to improve the performance and sustainability of buildings. However, despite the growing importance of the roof to the building design, there is a lack of practical knowledge about roofs by Architects, and Collaborative Design scenes were practitioners, Architects and Contractors, work together and interact to exchange the necessary knowledge. So, a knowledge gap between design and construct exists that prevent the creation of Integral Designs for roofs. The Problem Definition for this research project is therefore formulated as follows: there is a lack in practice of Collaborative Design scenes were practitioners – Architects and Contractors – can interact and exchange object- and realization-knowledge working on design tasks to produce Integral Designs that comprise realization knowledge. The need for this research project is twofold: First; widely published studies on practice point to a general lack of Collaborative Design teams working on complex building projects. Second, when multidisciplinary Collaborative Design teams have worked on complex building projects, the final design concepts often proved inadequate to deliver an integral designed solution. The result of this unsatisfactory practice is the risk to an increasing amount of failure costs in the Dutch Building &Construction Industry. Recent studies of Collaborative Design teams in the Netherlands show that poor interaction and knowledge exchange are key factors contributing to the failures mentioned above. This is especially true for Collaborative Designs for roofs as shown by literature-studies and the Case Studies presented in this research project. Previous research and literature studies about Design Teams confirmed that workshops are suitable practical scenes for practitioners to be used for observation and analyses in executing semi-experimental research. The contention of this research project is that a specific scene for Collaborative Design - the Collaborative Design Workshop – leads; first: to interaction and knowledge exchange between the practitioners involved and second: stimulates interaction and knowledge exchange for Integral Designs for roofs by incorporating realization knowledge. The Design Research Methodology (DRM) is used for this research project to observe, analyze and find possibilities to stimulate interaction and knowledge exchange between Architects and Contractors in a Collaborative Design scene. The DRM is suitable for this research project because of its iterative nature that allows the researchers to improve their research method during the research process and producing a Technological Design as a result. A workshop with a specific setting: a Collaborative Design Workshop was developed and tested in a Practice Setting. Key-components were identified that affect the design activities in such a workshop: the Design Task, the Collaborative Design Team, the Practice Setting and the Design Support Tool. As Design Support Tool, the Morphological Overview (MO) is used because it provides an opportunity to design teams to collect, notate and discuss all aspects of the design task, like function-types and related sub-solutions with different levels of abstraction, in a methodical and structured way. During the DRM research process, which is executed in four stages, analyzing formats were developed for the data of observation of the design activities and the interaction and knowledge exchange between the two practitioners: Architects and Contractors. The output of the Collaborative Design Workshops was evaluated with the participants using specific evaluation forms and questionnaires developed by the researchers. This evaluation took place directly after the workshop and six months later to observe the affect of the workshop and the use of the MO on Architects and Contractors in practice. Based on the outcomes of analyzes and evaluations the, so called: Definitive Collaborative Design Workshop was defined and finally tested in the last stage of the DRM. In this final stage also the four analyzing and evaluation formats were tested: the Video Observation Format, the Video Interaction Format, the Morphological Analyzing Format and Evaluation Formats. The results of this research project show that a variety of media was used by both Architects and Contractors throughout the different design-task settings in the Definitive Collaborative Design Workshops. To determine the type of knowledge that is necessary a reference-list was compiled based on the competence-profiles of the practitioners. The outcomes show a wide variety of object and realization-knowledge that is notated by the practitioners in such a Collaborative Design scene, notated as so called function-types and sub-solutions related to the reference-list. The outcomes show that realization-knowledge was used by notations in the MO of both practitioners: Architect and Contractor in three out of seventeen Collaborative Teams. This indicates that the MO, when being loosely introduced in a design team, is suitable as a supportive tool to stimulate interaction and knowledge exchange however its effect decreases after using the MO for the second time. Regarding collaboration aspects, the outcomes show that in some Design Task Settings the Architects play amore dominant role compared to the Contractors. However, the analyses of the Contractors role in design tasks showed they could communicate a substantial amount of function-types and subsolutions in all settings. Significant about this is that although the Architect’s notations showed a majority, the Contractors could put forward additional notations. These outcomes indicate and provide some evidence that the developed Collaborative Design Workshop can provide for Architects and Contractors, an effective scene to interact and exchange realization-knowledge besides object knowledge. The final result of this research project is the Technological Design as presented: the Collaborative Design Workshop and the CD Protocol for its use. This CD Protocol consists of two parts: The first part concerns the organizing and management aspects for executing the Collaborative Design Workshop. The second part concerns the description for the observation and analyzes to execute and the judgment of the outcomes of the analyzes using the formats that are developed. These formats are: the VOF (Video Observation Format), the VIF (Video Interaction Format), the MAF (Morphological Analyzing Format) and Evaluation Formats. Finally it might be concluded that the outcomes of this research project, using the DRM and a design support, provide evidence that, by the application of the Technological Design guided by the CD Protocol, it is possible to stimulate interaction and knowledge exchange – especially realization knowledge– between Architects and Contractors to realize Integral Designs in the early design phase

Proceedings of the ECCS 2005 satellite workshop: embracing complexity in design - Paris 17 November 2005

Embracing complexity in design is one of the critical issues and challenges of the 21st century. As the realization grows that design activities and artefacts display properties associated with complex adaptive systems, so grows the need to use complexity concepts and methods to understand these properties and inform the design of better artifacts. It is a great challenge because complexity science represents an epistemological and methodological swift that promises a holistic approach in the understanding and operational support of design. But design is also a major contributor in complexity research. Design science is concerned with problems that are fundamental in the sciences in general and complexity sciences in particular. For instance, design has been perceived and studied as a ubiquitous activity inherent in every human activity, as the art of generating hypotheses, as a type of experiment, or as a creative co-evolutionary process. Design science and its established approaches and practices can be a great source for advancement and innovation in complexity science. These proceedings are the result of a workshop organized as part of the activities of a UK government AHRB/EPSRC funded research cluster called Embracing Complexity in Design (www.complexityanddesign.net) and the European Conference in Complex Systems (complexsystems.lri.fr). Embracing complexity in design is one of the critical issues and challenges of the 21st century. As the realization grows that design activities and artefacts display properties associated with complex adaptive systems, so grows the need to use complexity concepts and methods to understand these properties and inform the design of better artifacts. It is a great challenge because complexity science represents an epistemological and methodological swift that promises a holistic approach in the understanding and operational support of design. But design is also a major contributor in complexity research. Design science is concerned with problems that are fundamental in the sciences in general and complexity sciences in particular. For instance, design has been perceived and studied as a ubiquitous activity inherent in every human activity, as the art of generating hypotheses, as a type of experiment, or as a creative co-evolutionary process. Design science and its established approaches and practices can be a great source for advancement and innovation in complexity science. These proceedings are the result of a workshop organized as part of the activities of a UK government AHRB/EPSRC funded research cluster called Embracing Complexity in Design (www.complexityanddesign.net) and the European Conference in Complex Systems (complexsystems.lri.fr)

Prefabricated Construction using Digitally Integrated Industrial Manufacturing

The paper describes research being carried out in relation to prefabricated high density affordablehousing under a grant from the Partnership for the Advancement of Technology in Housing(PATH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the USA. The objective is to demonstratehow a new paradigm for the conceptualization and construction of buildings can be conceivedof as an entirely factory based process that creates advantages for construction through industrialsystems technology transfer. Our approach is intended to transform design methodologythrough demonstrating how alternative construction concepts, using entirely pre-manufacturedvolumetric units, can be adopted. This involves digital modeling that facilitates parametric variationsfor creating customized prefabricated products from design conceptualization through tofinal product delivery. The paper discusses key areas under investigation in relation to a manufacturingparadigm used in the automotive industry that integrates virtual prototyping and industrialmanufacturing systems. Our research explores a type of monocoque volumetric unit prefabricatedin steel, which will be pre-finished as part of a modular factory-built approach usingindustrialized methodologies that will facilitate customized manufacture of a high quality energyefficient product for affordable housing.The paper addresses the automotive industry methods of manufacture that have served increasedautomobile performance and economics through mass production for over a century. In starkcontrast, the building industry and in particular the housing industry is still a century behind. It issuggested that a move away from tradition will require an industry wide initiative, just like HenryFord led the way with mass production. By embracing the increasing sophistication and capabilitythat digital technology offers, it is shown how digital tools are implemented towards masscustomization in house design using virtual modeling in the context of a prefabricated manufacturingapproach. This includes industrialized modular sub-assembly design, where the informationon parts, assemblies and modules can be transferred to digital and robotic technology, asseen in the automotive industry, as well as achieving enhanced production efficiency through a‘supply chain' process, which is condensed. The paper discusses how these models for manufacturecan be transferred into the housing market in order to revolutionize the cost and qualitybase of construction. Our research objective is to disseminate knowledge on this process, andshowing how through integrated transfer of automotive technologies we can implement an industrializedfabrication process for mass housing, not previously known in the building industry

Adaptive intelligent tutoring for teaching modern standard Arabic

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyThe aim of this PhD thesis is to develop a framework for adaptive intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) in the domain of Modern Standard Arabic language. This framework will comprise of a new approach to using a fuzzy inference mechanism and generic rules in guiding the learning process. In addition, the framework will demonstrate another contribution in which the system can be adapted to be used in the teaching of different languages. A prototype system will be developed to demonstrate these features. This system is targeted at adult English-speaking casual learners with no pre-knowledge of the Arabic language. It will consist of two parts: an ITS for learners to use and a teachers‘ tool for configuring and customising the teaching rules and artificial intelligence components among other configuration operations. The system also provides a diverse teaching-strategies‘ environment based on multiple instructional strategies. This approach is based on general rules that provide means to a reconfigurable prediction. The ITS determines the learner‘s learning characteristics using multiple fuzzy inferences. It has a reconfigurable design that can be altered by the teacher at runtime via a teacher-interface. A framework for an independent domain (i.e. pluggable-domain) for foreign language tutoring systems is introduced in this research. This approach allows the system to adapt to the teaching of a different language with little changes required. Such a feature has the advantages of reducing the time and cost required for building intelligent language tutoring systems. To evaluate the proposed system, two experiments are conducted with two versions of the software: the ITS and a cut down version with no artificial intelligence components. The learners used the ITS had shown an increase in scores between the post-test and the pre-test with learning gain of 35% compared to 25% of the learners from the cut down version

Some Issues on Ontology Integration

The word integration has been used with different meanings in the ontology field. This article aims at clarifying the meaning of the word “integration” and presenting some of the relevant work done in integration. We identify three meanings of ontology “integration”: when building a new ontology reusing (by assembling, extending, specializing or adapting) other ontologies already available; when building an ontology by merging several ontologies into a single one that unifies all of them; when building an application using one or more ontologies. We discuss the different meanings of “integration”, identify the main characteristics of the three different processes and proposethree words to distinguish among those meanings:integration, merge and use