Juan Manuel Serrano

Knowledge-based models for emergency management systems

Abstract This paper proposes the use of advanced knowledge models to support environmental emergency management as an adequate response to the current needs and technology. A generic architecture embodying the knowledge pieces required to manage emergencies in different kinds of problem scenarios is described. Simulation models of the physical system, integrated as part of the knowledge architecture, are also claimed to be adequate, both from the point of view of the knowledge model calibration and the training of the emergency personnel as well. The feasibility of the approach has been demonstrated with the application of the generic model to a particular real world problem: the management of flood emergencies in the Jucar river basin area (Spain). This work was developed in the framework of ARTEMIS, a European Commission research project.

On the Impact of Agent Communication Languages on the Implementation of Agent Systems

Today’s software platforms that support the construction of agent systems in accordance with the FIPA specifications essentially provide enabling infrastructure services, and are still far away from adequately rendering support to current methodologies and theories for building agent systems, especially when social concepts play a significant role. Elsewhere, we have presented the \(\mathcal{RICA}\) theory, that smoothly integrates relevant aspects of Agent Communication Languages and Organisational Models, so as to provide guidelines for agent system design. This paper explores the impact of this theory on the actual development and implementation of agent-based applications. For this purpose, the \(\mathcal{RICA}\) metamodel is considered as a programming language, in which roles, interactions, communicative actions, etc., are first-class language entities. We show how this language can be effectively implemented as a software framework that extends the JADE platform, and provide an example that illustrates its potential.

MULTI-AGENT SYSTEMS FOR DECISION SUPPORT: A CASE STUDY IN THE TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT DOMAIN

This article describes how agent and knowledge technology can be used to build advanced software systems that support operational decision making in complex domains. In particular, we present an abstract architecture and design guidelines for agent-based decision support systems. We illustrate our approach with a case study in the transportation management domain.

The pragmatics of software agents: analysis and design of agent communication languages

Modern ACLs, such as FIPA ACL, provide standardised catalogues of performatives and protocols, designed as general purpose languages to ensure interoperability among agent systems. However, recent work reports a need for new ad-hoc sets of performatives and protocols in certain contexts, showing that FIPA ACL does not support adequately all relevant types of interactions. In this paper we first present a formal model that relates performatives and protocols to the organisation of MAS. Then, a principled method for the design of the ACL of a particular MAS is developed, which accounts for both, reusability and expressiveness. Finally, we illustrate our approach by an example in the domain of agent-based decision support for bus fleet management.

Operational semantics of multiagent interactions

The social stance advocated by institutional frameworks and most multiagent system methodologies has resulted in a wide spectrum of organizational and communicative abstractions which have found currency in several programming frameworks and software platforms. Still, these tools and frameworks are designed to support a limited range of interaction capabilities that constrain developers to a fixed set of particular, pre-defined abstractions. The main hypothesis motivating this paper is that the variety of multiagent interaction mechanisms -- both, organizational and communicative, share a common semantic core. In the realm of software architectures, the paper proposes a connector-based model of multiagent interactions which attempts to identify the essential structure underlying multiagent interactions. Furthermore, the paper also provides this model with a formal execution semantics which describes the dynamics of social interactions. The proposed model is intended as the abstract machine of an organizational programming language which allows programmers to accommodate an open set of interaction mechanisms.

An Organizational Metamodel for the Design of Catalogues of Communicative Actions

Modern ACLs, such as FIPA ACL, provide standardized catalogues of performatives denoting types of communicative actions. They have been designed as general purpose languages to ensure interoperability among agent systems. However, recent work reports a need for new ad-hoc sets of performatives in certain contexts, showing that FIPA ACL does not support adequately all relevant types of interactions. In this paper we first present a formal model that relates performatives, and other ACL-related concepts, to the organization of MAS. Then, a principled method for the design of the ACL of a particular MAS is developed, which account for both, reusability and expressiveness. Finally, we illustrate our approach by an example in the domain of online stock brokering.

Dealing with incomplete normative states

This paper puts forward a normative framework for computational societies which enables the handling of incomplete knowledge about normative relations. In particular, attempts to perform a social action are evaluated as permitted, prohibited (i.e. not permitted) or pending for execution (i.e. neither permitted nor prohibited). This latter category of attempts can eventually be resolved as permitted or prohibited attempts using the speech acts allow and forbid. We make use of the support for incompleteness of action language K in the formalisation of the framework. The proposal will be illustrated with some scenarios drawn from the management of university courses.

Run-Time Semantics of a Language for Programming Social Processes

There is a broad range of application domains which can be described under the heading of social process domains: business processes, social networks, game servers, etc. This paper puts forward a programming language approach to the formal specification of social processes, building upon the C+ action description language. Particularly, the paper focuses on the run-time semantics of the language, which is delivered as a core layer of application-independent sorts which make up the abstract machine of the language. The advantages of the presented approach with respect to other state-of-the-art proposals lie in its strong support for modularity and reusability, and hence for the development of large-scale, elaboration tolerant, specifications of social processes.

A Web-Based Virtual Machine for Developing Computational Societies

Different theoretical and practical insights into the field of computational organisations and electronic institutions has led to a clear separation of concerns between societal and agent-based features in the implementation of multiagent systems. From a theoretical perspective, this separation of concerns is also at the core of recent proposals towards a societalprogramming language. Building on the operational model of one of these proposals, this paper addresses the practical issue of implementing a web-based virtual machine for that language. The resulting framework is intended to be used in a wide range of applications, all of them related to the implementation of social processes (business processes, social networks, etc.).

A semantic framework for the recursive specification of interaction protocols

This paper addresses two major problems concerning the specification of interaction protocols: the lack of an established semantic framework which precisely identifies the modelling elements that different kind of specification techniques may exploit in their specifications; and the lack of techniques which allow designers to reuse pre-specified protocols by specialising them in more specific domains. We deal with these issues in the context of the organisational framework provided by the RICA theory, and propose a new formalism based on so-called Interaction State Machines, which will be applied to the re-design of some protocols of the FIPA IPL.