Alexei Sharpanskykh

SPECIFICATION AND VERIFICATION OF DYNAMICS IN AGENT MODELS

Within many domains, among which biological, cognitive, and social areas, multiple interacting processes occur among agents with dynamics that are hard to handle. This paper presents the predicate logical Temporal Trace Language (TTL) for the formal specification and analysis of dynamic properties of agents and multi-agent systems. This language supports the specification of both qualitative and quantitative aspects, and therefore subsumes specification languages based on differential equations and qualitative, logical approaches. A software environment has been developed for TTL, which supports editing TTL properties and enables the formal verification of properties against a set of traces. The TTL environment proved its value in a number of projects within different biological, cognitive and social domains.

Modeling organizational performance indicators

Performance measurement and analysis is crucial for steering the organization to realize its strategic and operational goals. Relevant performance indicators and their relationships to goals and activities need to be determined and analyzed. Current organization modeling approaches do not reflect this in an adequate way. This paper attempts to fill the gap by presenting a framework for modeling performance indicators within a general organization modeling framework.

Specification and Verification of Dynamics in Cognitive Agent Models

Within many domains, among which biological and cognitive areas, multiple interacting processes occur among agents with dynamics that are hard to handle. Current approaches to analyse the dynamics of such processes, often based on differential equations, are not always successful. As an alternative to differential equations, this paper presents the predicate logical temporal trace language (TTL) for the formal specification and analysis of dynamic properties. This language supports the specification of both qualitative and quantitative aspects, and therefore subsumes specification languages based on differential equations. A software environment has been developed for TTL, that supports editing TTL properties and enables the formal verification of properties against a set of traces. The TTL environment proved its value in a number of projects within different domains.

Formal modelling of organisational goals based on performance indicators

Every organisation exists or is created for the achievement of one or more goals. To ensure continued success, the organisation should monitor its performance with respect to the formulated goals. In practice the performance of an organisation is often evaluated by estimating its performance indicators. In most existing approaches for organisation modelling the relation between performance indicators and goals remains implicit. This paper proposes a formal framework for modelling goals based on performance indicators and defines mechanisms for establishing goal satisfaction, which enable evaluation of organisational performance. Methodological and analysis issues related to goals are also discussed in the paper. The described framework is a part of a general framework for organisation modelling and analysis.

A Temporal Trace Language for Formal Modelling and Analysis of Agent Systems

This chapter presents the hybrid Temporal Trace Language (TTL) for formal specification and analysis of dynamic properties of multi-agent systems. This language supports specification of both qualitative and quantitative aspects, and subsumes languages based on differential equations and temporal logics. TTL has a high expressivity and normal forms that enable automated analysis. Software environments for performing verification of TTL specifications have been developed. TTL proved its value in a number of domains.

A framework for formal modeling and analysis of organizations

A new, formal, role-based, framework for modeling and analyzing both real world and artificial organizations is introduced. It exploits static and dynamic properties of the organizational model and includes the (frequently ignored) environment. The transition is described from a generic framework of an organization to its deployed model and to the actual agent allocation. For verification and validation of the proposed model, a set of dedicated techniques is introduced. Moreover, where most computational models can handle only two or three layered organizational structures, our framework can handle any arbitrary number of organizational layers. Henceforth, real-world organizations can be modeled and analyzed, as illustrated by a case study, within the DEAL project line

An agent-based approach for structured modeling, analysis and improvement of safety culture

Safety culture is broadly recognized as important for operational safety in various fields, including air traffic management, power plant control and health care. Previous studies addressed characterization and assessment of safety culture extensively. Nevertheless, relations between safety culture and formal and informal organizational structures and processes are yet not well understood. To address this gap, a new, formal, agent-based approach is proposed. This paper shows the application of the approach to an air navigation service provider, including structured modeling, analysis and identification of improvement strategies for the organizational safety culture. The model results have been validated using safety culture data that had been achieved by an independent safety culture survey study.

Formal modeling and analysis of organizations

A new, formal, role-based, framework for modeling and analyzing both real world and artificial organizations is introduced. It exploits static and dynamic properties of the organizational model and includes the (frequently ignored) environment. The transition is described from a generic framework of an organization to its deployed model and to the actual agent allocation. For verification and validation purposes, a set of dedicated techniques is introduced. Moreover, where most models can handle only two or three layered organizational structures, our framework can handle any arbitrary number of organizational layers. Henceforth, real-world organizations can be modeled and analyzed, as illustrated by a case study, within the DEAL project line.

Process-oriented organisation modelling and analysis

This paper presents a formal framework for process-oriented modelling and analysis of organisations. The high expressivity of the sorted predicate logic language used for specification allows representing a wide range of process-related concepts (e.g. tasks, processes, resources), characteristics and relations, which are described in the paper. Furthermore, for every organisation, structural and behavioural constraints on process-related concepts can be identified. Some of them should always be fulfilled by the organisation (e.g. physical world constraints), whereas others allow some degree of organisational flexibility (e.g. some domain specific constraints). An organisational specification is correct if it satisfies a set of relevant organisational constraints. This paper describes automated formal techniques for establishing correctness of organisational specifications with respect to a set of diverse constraint types. The introduced framework is a part of a general framework for organisation modelling and analysis.

Grouping behaviour in AmI-enabled crowd evacuation

Grouping behaviour occurs often in crowd evacuation. On the one hand, groups are needed for efficient evacuation. On the other hand, large uncontrolled groups (herds) may cause clogging and increase panic. The mechanisms of emergence of leaders and groups in complex socio-technical systems with intelligent technical components are not well understood. This paper presents the first attempt to unveil the role of AmI technology in formation of spontaneous groups in crowd evacuation. To this end several hypotheses were formulated, which were tested by simulation experiments based on a cognitive agent model. The checking of the hypotheses was done in the context of a train station evacuation scenario. The general outcome is that in a system with scarce and uncertain information, AmI technology can be used to stimulate emergence of leaders and groups to increase the efficiency of evacuation. Furthermore, a large penetration rate of ambient devices may be unnecessary and even not appropriate for fluent evacuation.