Larry Bunch

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.

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.

Summary of Team IHMC's virtual robotics challenge entry

This paper presents a high level overview of the work done by Team IHMC (Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition) to win the DARPA Virtual Robotics Challenge (VRC), held June 18-20 2013. The VRC consisted of a series of three tasks (driving a vehicle, walking over varied terrain, and manipulating a fire hose), to be completed in simulation using a model of the humanoid robot Atlas. Team IHMC was able to complete all of these challenges multiple times during the competition. The paper presents our approach, as well as a birds-eye view of the major software components and their integration.

Software agents for process monitoring and notification

Safety and efficiency are primary concerns in chemical processing facilities, though the complexity of many such systems often makes it difficult for operators to detect abnormal conditions before they compromise throughput or become hazardous. In this paper, we report initial results from the application of multi-agent systems to monitor complex chemical processes and flexibly and appropriately notify key plant personnel about off-nominal conditions.

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.

Sol: An Agent-Based Framework for Cyber Situation Awareness

In this article, we describe how we augment human perception and cognition through Sol, an agent-based framework for distributed sensemaking. We describe how our visualization approach, based on IHMC’s OZ flight display, has been leveraged and extended in our development of the Flow Capacitor, an analyst display for maintaining cyber situation awareness, and in the Parallel Coordinates 3D Observatory (PC3O or Observatory), a generalization of the Flow Capacitor that provides capabilities for developing and exploring lines of inquiry. We then introduce the primary implementation frameworks that provide the core capabilities of Sol: the Luna Software Agent Framework, the VIA Cross-Layer Communications Substrate, and the KAoS Policy Services Framework. We show how policy-governed agents can perform much of the tedious high-tempo tasks of analysts and facilitate collaboration. Much of the power of Sol lies in the concept of coactive emergence, whereby a comprehension of complex situations is achieved through the collaboration of analysts and agents working together in tandem. Not only can the approach embodied in Sol lead to a qualitative improvement in cyber situation awareness, but its approach is equally relevant to applications of distributed sensemaking for other kinds of complex high-tempo tasks.

QoS enabled dissemination of managed information objects in a publish-subscribe-query information broker

Net-centric information spaces have become a necessary concept to support information exchange for tactical warfighting missions using a publish-subscribe-query paradigm. To support dynamic, mission-critical and time-critical operations, information spaces require quality of service (QoS)-enabled dissemination (QED) of information. This paper describes the results of research we are conducting to provide QED information exchange in tactical environments. We have developed a prototype QoS-enabled publish-subscribe-query information broker that provides timely delivery of information needed by tactical warfighters in mobile scenarios with time-critical emergent targets. This broker enables tailoring and prioritizing of information based on mission needs and responds rapidly to priority shifts and unfolding situations. This paper describes the QED architecture, prototype implementation, testing infrastructure, and empirical evaluations we have conducted based on our prototype.

Dynamic Policy-Driven Quality of Service in Service-Oriented Systems

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) middleware has emerged as a powerful and popular distributed computing paradigm due to its high-level abstractions for composing systems and hiding platform-level details. Control of some details hidden by SOA middleware is necessary, however, to provide managed quality of service (QoS) for SOA systems that need predictable performance and behavior. This paper presents a policy-driven approach for managing QoS in SOA systems. We discuss the design of several key QoS services and empirically evaluate their ability to provide QoS under CPU overload and bandwidth-constrained situations.

Human-robot coordination through dynamic regulation

Several key aspects of coordination such as teamwork, roles, and communication, are enabled and driven by, and even largely defined by, various systems of regulation. One key feature of all these elements in human coordination is their dynamic nature. We have developed a framework to provide a dynamic regulatory system for supporting coordination in human-robot teamwork. This framework supports the definition and functions of roles within teams, as well as the creation of subteams and the roles within them. It also serves to regulate communications in support of coordination. We have demonstrated our system with a team of two humans and five robots performing advanced coordination while trying to apprehend an intruder hiding on a cluttered pier. This work lays the foundation for human-robot coordination based on dynamic regulation.