James Lott

KAoS policy and domain services: toward a description-logic approach to policy representation, deconfliction, and enforcement

We describe our initial implementation of the KAoS policy and domain services. While primarily oriented to the dynamic and complex requirements of software agent applications, the services are also being adapted to general-purpose grid computing and Web services environments as well. The KAoS services rely on a DAML description-logic-based ontology of the computational environment, application context, and the policies themselves that enables runtime extensibility and adaptability of the system, as well as the ability to analyze policies relating to entities described at different levels of abstraction.

Concept maps: integrating knowledge and information visualization

Information visualization has been a research topic for many years, leading to a mature field where guidelines and practices are well established. Knowledge visualization, in contrast, is a relatively new area of research that has received more attention recently due to the interest from the business community in Knowledge Management. In this paper we present the CmapTools software as an example of how concept maps, a knowledge visualization tool, can be combined with recent technology to provide integration between knowledge and information visualizations. We show how concept map-based knowledge models can be used to organize repositories of information in a way that makes them easily browsable, and how concept maps can improve searching algorithms for the Web. We also report on how information can be used to complement knowledge models and, based on the searching algorithms, improve the process of constructing concept maps.

Representation and reasoning for DAML-based policy and domain services in KAoS and nomads

To increase the assurance with which agents can be deployed in operational settings, we have been developing the KAoS policy and domain services. In conjunction with Nomads strong mobility and safe execution features, KAoS services and tools allow for the specification, management, conflict resolution, and enforcement of DAML-based policies within the specific contexts established by complex organizational structures. In this paper, we will discuss results, issues, and lessons learned in the development of these representations, tools, and services and their use in military and space application.

New Developments in Ontology-Based Policy Management: Increasing the Practicality and Comprehensiveness of KAoS

The KAoS policy management framework pioneered the use of semantically-rich ontological representation and reasoning to specify, analyze, deconflict, and enforce policies [9, 10]. The framework has continued to evolve over the last five years, inspired by both technological advances and the practical needs of its varied applications. In this paper, we describe how these applications have motivated the partitioning of components into a well-defined three-layer policy management architecture that hides ontology complexity from the human user and from the policy-governed system. The power of semantic reasoning is embedded in the middle layer of the architecture where it can provide the most benefit. We also describe how the policy semantics of the core KAoS policy ontology has grown in its comprehensiveness. The flexible and mature architecture of KAoS enables straightforward integration with a variety of deployment platforms, ranging from highly distributed systems, such as the AFRL information management system, to human-robotic interaction, to dynamic management of quality-of-service and cross-domain information management of wireless networks in resource-constrained or security-sensitive environments.

DAML-based policy enforcement for semantic data transformation and filtering in multi-agent systems

This paper describes an approach to runtime policy-based control over information exchange that allows a far more fine-grained control of these dynamically discovered agent interactions. The DARPA Agent Markup Language (DAML) is used to represent policies that may either filter messages based on their semantic content or transform the messages to make them suitable to be released. Policy definition, management, and enforcement are realized as part of the KAoS architecture. The solutions presented have been tested in the Coalition Agents Experiment (CoAX) - an experiment involving coalition military operations.

Toward DAML-based policy enforcement for semantic data transformation and filtering in multi-agent systems

This paper describes an approach to runtime policy-based control over information exchange that allows a far more fine-grained control of these dynamically discovered agent interactions. The DARPA Agent Markup Language (DAML) is used to represent policies that may either filter messages based on their semantic content or transform the messages to make them suitable to be released. Policy definition, management, and enforcement are realized as part of the KAoS architecture. The solutions presented have been tested in the Coalition Agents Experiment (CoAX)—an experiment involving coalition military operations.

From Tools to Teammates: Joint Activity in Human-Agent-Robot Teams

Coordination is an essential ingredient of joint activity in human-agent-robot teams. In this paper, we discuss some of the challenges and requirements for successful coordination, and briefly how we have used KAoS HART services framework to support coordination in a multi-team human-robot field exercise.

Coordination in Human-Agent-Robot Teamwork

Coordination is an essential ingredient of a teamwork- centered approach to autonomy. In this paper, we discuss some of the challenges and requirements for successful coordination, and briefly how we have used KAoS HART services framework to support coordination in a multi- team human-robot field exercise.

Behavioural specification of grid services with the KAoS policy language

Complex services in service-oriented architectures such as the grid typically require to be configured in multiple ways that cannot be anticipated by service designers; we illustrate this requirement by studying the myGrid registry, a grid registry capable of supporting annotations of service descriptions by third-party users. Instead, services have to be conceived so that they can be configured at deployment and run time. We argue that KAoS is a powerful and flexible language that can help define such configurations. Using our registry case study, we examine the requirements that the definition of such complex configurations brings on policy languages and explain how they can be satisfied. Specifically, we use role-value maps to express constraints between property values; we introduce a notion of PolicySet with associated parameters that support constraints within a well defined scope; finally, we define a notion of context that allows us to refer to property values that were extant in past execution environments. Essentially, these concepts allow us to add constraints to values in policy definitions, to organise policies in coherent and structure blocks, and to refer to the execution history. The paper discusses these concepts and how they are implemented in a binding of the KAoS policy language to the myGrid registry.

Toward a flexible ontology-based policy approach for network operations using the KAoS framework

This paper addresses the challenges of flexible and uniform policy management in complex military network operations. The ontology-based approach of KAoS policy services provides flexibility in level of abstraction, in mapping to third-party policy approaches, and in managing policies across multiple application domains and across different operating environments. KAoS allows for specification of policy in contrained English with an ontology-based vocabulary. Following an overview of the major components of the KAoS Policy Services framework, we describe ontology-related components, including the UCore and KAoS ontologies. We then describe our work on network and cognitive radio management. We present our approach to mapping SNMP MIB information to ontologies. Finally, we discuss results of an ongoing performance study of the policy system.