Model for WCET prediction, scheduling and task allocation for emergent agent-behaviours in real-time scenarios

[ES]Hasta el momento no se conocen modelos de tiempo real específicamente desarrollados para su uso en sistemas abiertos, como las Organizaciones Virtuales de Agentes (OVs). Convencionalmente, los modelos de tiempo real se aplican a sistemas cerrados donde todas las variables se conocen a priori. Esta tesis presenta nuevas contribuciones y la novedosa integración de agentes en tiempo real dentro de OVs. Hasta donde alcanza nuestro conocimiento, éste es el primer modelo específicamente diseñado para su aplicación en OVs con restricciones temporales estrictas. Esta tesis proporciona una nueva perspectiva que combina la apertura y dinamicidad necesarias en una OV con las restricciones de tiempo real. Ésto es una aspecto complicado ya que el primer paradigma no es estricto, como el propio término de sistema abierto indica, sin embargo, el segundo paradigma debe cumplir estrictas restricciones. En resumen, el modelo que se presenta permite definir las acciones que una OV debe llevar a cabo con un plazo concreto, considerando los cambios que pueden ocurrir durante la ejecución de un plan particular. Es una planificación de tiempo real en una OV. Otra de las principales contribuciones de esta tesis es un modelo para el cálculo del tiempo de ejecución en el peor caso (WCET). La propuesta es un modelo efectivo para calcular el peor escenario cuando un agente desea formar parte de una OV y para ello, debe incluir sus tareas o comportamientos dentro del sistema de tiempo real, es decir, se calcula el WCET de comportamientos emergentes en tiempo de ejecución. También se incluye una planificación local para cada nodo de ejecución basada en el algoritmo FPS y una distribución de tareas entre los nodos disponibles en el sistema. Para ambos modelos se usan modelos matemáticos y estadísticos avanzados para crear un mecanismo adaptable, robusto y eficiente para agentes inteligentes en OVs. El desconocimiento, pese al estudio realizado, de una plataforma para sistemas abiertos que soporte agentes con restricciones de tiempo real y los mecanismos necesarios para el control y la gestión de OVs, es la principal motivación para el desarrollo de la plataforma de agentes PANGEA+RT. PANGEA+RT es una innovadora plataforma multi-agente que proporciona soporte para la ejecución de agentes en ambientes de tiempo real. Finalmente, se presenta un caso de estudio donde robots heterogéneos colaboran para realizar tareas de vigilancia. El caso de estudio se ha desarrollado con la plataforma PANGEA+RT donde el modelo propuesto está integrado. Por tanto al final de la tesis, con este caso de estudio se obtienen los resultados y conclusiones que validan el modelo

Casos de éxito dentro del comercio y negocio electrónico

[ES]Los ejes principales del comercio electrónico B2C durante años han sido el transporte aéreo, agencias de viajes y operadores turísticos. Los juegos de azar y apuestas y los ingresos por la venta de ordenadores y programas informática están creciendo también a un ritmo importante. La evolución del comercio electrónico medida por el número de operaciones tiene la misma tendencia creciente que el análisis realizado por ingresos. Los ingresos del comercio electrónico crecen, lo que denota la mayor confianza que tienen los consumidores para utilizar estos medios de pago. La tecnología actual está haciendo que esta forma de negocio crezca exponencialmente en la mayor parte de los sectores y países. En este capítulo se analiza tanto la tecnología existente como la evolución de la misma.[EN]The main axes of B2C e-commerce for years have been air transport, travel agencies and tour operators. Gambling and betting and income from the sale of computers and software are also growing at a significant rate. The evolution of e-commerce measured by the number of operations has the same growing trend as the analysis by revenue. Revenues from e-commerce are growing, reflecting the greater confidence that consumers have in using these means of payment. Current technology is making this form of business grow exponentially in most sectors and countries. This chapter examines both existing technology and its evolution

Visualization of Agents and Their Interaction within Dynamic Environments

Many new technical systems are distributed systems that involve complex interaction between humans and machines, which notably reduces their usability. The properties of Agent Based Simulation make it especially suitable for simulating this kind of system. However, it is necessary to define new middleware solutions that allow the connection of simulation and visualization software. This paper describes the results achieved from a multiagent-based middleware for the behavior simulation and visualization of agents. The middleware modules presented in this study allow a complete integration of technologies for the development of Multiagent Systems and Agent Based Simulation, the construction of virtual organizations of agents, and the connection to external modules that represent the entities of the agents

Fusion system based on multi-agent systems to merge data from WSN

This paper presents an intelligent multi-agent system that is aimed at improving healthcare and assistance to elderly and dependent people in geriatric residences and at their homes. The system is based on the PANGEA multi-agent architecture, which provides a high-level framework for intelligent information fusion and management. The system makes use of wireless sensor networks and a real-time locating system to obtain heterogeneous data, and is able to provide autonomous responses according to the environment status. The high-level development of the system that extracts and stores information plays an essential role to deal with the avalanche of context data. In our case, the multi-agent system approach results satisfactorily because each agent that represents an autonomous entity with different capabilities and offers different services works collaboratively with each other. Several tests have been performed on this platform to evaluate/demonstrate its validity

Case-Based Reasoning Applied to Medical Diagnosis and Treatment

The Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) is an appropriate methodology to apply in diagnosis and treatment. Research in CBR is growing and there are shortcomings, especially in the adaptation mechanism. In this paper, besides presenting a methodological review of the technology applied to the diagnostics and health sector published in recent years, a new proposal is presented to improve the adaptation stage. This proposal is focused on preparing the data to create association rules that help to reduce the number of cases and facilitate learning adaptation rules

Dynamic Distribution of Tasks in Health-Care Scenarios

This paper presents a multiagent system that use an autonomous deliberative case-based reasoningagent to design an efficient working day. The system has been developed to plan and distribute tasks in a health care scenario, specifically in geriatric residences. This model generates a planning of tasks, minimizing the resources necessary for its accomplishment and obtaining the maximum benefits. For this purpose, the queuing theory and genetic algorithms have been include in a CBRarchitecture to obtain an efficient distribution. To evaluate the model, the obtained results have been compared with a previous method of planning based on neural networks

An integrated system for disabled people developed with the agent platform PANGEA

New trends in multi-agent systems call for self-adaptation and high dynamics, hence the new model of open MAS or virtual organization of agents. However, as existing agent platforms are not yet equipped to support this behavior, it is necessary to create new systems and mechanisms to facilitate the development of these new architectures. This article presents PANGEA, an agent platform to develop open multi-agent systems, specifically those including organizational aspects such as virtual agent organizations. The platform allows the integral management of organizations and offers tools to the end user. Additionally, it includes a communication protocol based on the IRC standard, which facilitates implementation and remains robust even with a large number of connections. The introduction of a CommunicationAgent and a Sniffer make it possible to offer Web Services for the distributed control of interaction. In order to test PANGEA, an integral system was developed to help the disabled, gathering a set of easily deployable and integrated services under a single architecture

Integration of a Proximity Detection Prototype into a VO Developed with PANGEA

This article presents a proximity detection prototype that uses ZigBee technology developed using the agent’s platform PANGEA (Platform for Automatic coNstruction of orGanizations of intElligent Agents). PANGEA is an agent platform to develop open multiagent systems, specifically those including organizational aspects such as virtual agent organizations. The platform allows the complete management of organizations and offers tools to the end user. Due to the specific characteristics of this prototype, PANGEA is the perfect candidate to develop the prototype that will be included in the future in an integral system primarily oriented to facilitate the integration of people with disabilities into the workplace

MISIA: Middleware Infrastructure to Simulate Intelligent Agents

Nowadays there is a clear trend towards using methods and tools that can help to develop multiagent systems (MAS). This study presents a multiagent based middleware for the agents behavior simulation. The main challenge of this work is the design and development of a new infrastructure that can act as a middleware to communicate the current technology in charge of the development of the multiagent system and the technology in charge of the simulation, visualization and analysis of the behavior of the agents. It is a key element when considering that MAS are autonomous, adaptive and complex systems and provides advances abilities for visualization. The proposed middleware infrastructure makes it possible to visualize the emergent agent behaviour and the entity agent. It also allows visualization of the interaction between the agent and the environment

Improving Functionalities in a Multi-agent Architecture for Ocean Monitoring

This paper presents an improved version of a multiagent architecture aimed at providing solutions for monitoring the interaction between the atmosphere and the ocean. The ocean surface and the atmosphere exchange carbon dioxide. This process is can be modeled by a multiagent system with advanced learning and adaption capabilities. The proposed multiagent architecture incorporates CBR-agents. The CBR-agents proposed in this paper integrate novel strategies that both monitor the parameters that affect the interaction, and facilitate the creation of models. The system was tested and this paper presents the results obtained