Paola Turci

Dynamic Grid tasks composition and distribution through agents

This paper presents a multi‐agent system called GAIN (Grid Agent Infrastructure), which can be used for the development of flexible agent‐based Grid systems. The system supports users both in the development and execution of Grid applications. In particular, GAIN allows the definition of workflow applications by composing different tasks made available by the Grid nodes. Furthermore, it follows the different phases of the execution of the workflow providing transparent allocation and re‐allocation of the tasks on the different nodes of the Grid. A first prototype of the system has been realized by using the JADE agent development software and it has been tested in lab trials involving a network of different JADE platforms. In these trials, tasks provided both by the agents of the system and by external legacy software systems have been composed. Copyright

Multi-Agent Corporate Memory Management System

This paper presents an approach to design a multi-agent system managing a corporate memory in the form of a distributed semantic Web and describes the resulting architecture. The system was designed during the CoMMA European project (Corporate Memory Management through Agents) and aims at helping users in the management of a corporate memory, facilitating the creation, dissemination, transmission, and reuse of knowledge in an organization. The implementation integrated several emerging technologies: multi-agent system technology (using the JADE FIPA-compliant platform), knowledge modeling and XML technology for information retrieval (using the CORESE semantic search engine), and machine learning techniques. Here, we describe the agent roles and interactions, we explain the design rationale for the agent societies, and we discuss the configuration and implementation issues.

Extending JADE for agent grid applications

This paper presents an extension of the JADE agent development framework that may be the basis for the realization of flexible agent-based grid systems. In particular, JADE framework has been enriched with two new types of agents that, on the one hand simplify the distribution of tasks inside a grid of agent platforms, and, on the other hand, facilitate the composition of tasks through the use of production rules. Moreover, the paper describes how such kinds of operations are executed through the proper authentication and authorization mechanisms.

What Agent Middleware Can (And Should) Do For You

This paper addresses the issue of moving agent technology to the mainstream, looking from various perspectives at the mainstreaming process that can take place during a technology life cycle, radically moving its status from a supposedly good idea to an actual economic and industrial workhorse that lends itself useful in everyday life. While there is serious evidence that agent technology is approaching this critical point, it is by no means possible to tell whether agent technology will eventually be adopted on a global scale or not. However, looking at the various factors that can make the difference between acceptance and oblivion, a mainstreaming strategy can be set up. We claim that agent middleware has to play a fundamental role in this strategy, and we motivate our belief on the basis of general considerations and on our actual experience with the JADE agent platform.

Enhancing information sharing through agents

This paper presents RAIS, a peer-to-peer multi-agent system for information sharing among a community of users connected through the Internet. RAIS offers a similar search power of Web search engines, but avoids the burden of publishing information on the Web and guarantees a controlled and dynamic access to information. The use of agent technologies has made straightforward the realization of three of the main features of the system: i) filtering of information coming from different users, on the basis of the previous experience of the local user, ii) pushing of new information that can be of interest for a user, and iii) delegation of access capabilities, on the basis of a reputation network, built by the agents of the system on the community of its users.

CoMMA: a multi-agent system for corporate memory management

In this paper, we present CoMMA (Corporate Memory Management through Agents), an open, agent-based system for the management of a corporate memory that was realized integrating several emerging technologies: agent technology, knowledge modeling, XML technology, information retrieval and machine learning techniques. In particular, the system has been realized to help users in the management of an organization corporate memory and in particular to facilitate the creation, dissemination, transmission and reuse of knowledge in an organization. CoMMA system is a FIPA compliant agent system and has been implemented by using the JADE agent development software framework. CoMMA is the result of an international project funded by European Commission.

Enhancing peer-to-peer applications with multi-agent systems

This paper copes with the problem of integrating peer-to-peer and multi-agent systems for the realization of both large-scale multi-agent systems and sophisticated peer-to-peer applications. In particular, it presents how JADE, one of the best known and most used software framework for the development of multi-agent systems, has been extended with a peer-to-peer technology, and how a JADE multi-agent system can be overlapped over a peer-to-peer system to provide more sophisticated services.

Dynamic Grid tasks composition and distribution through agents: Research Articles

Next generation e-learning platforms will support cooperative use of geographically distributed educational resources as an aggregated environment, thus enabling a more effective knowledge exchange. Sharing this goal, our research activity addresses the definition and implementation of a service-based infrastructure for content distribution and multimedia streaming. The proposed architecture provides enough flexibility, extensibility, and scalability to cope with the ever-increasing heterogeneity and mobility of edge devices. In this paper, we initially illustrate the general objectives and requirements in the development of an e-learning oriented application for multimedia content discovery, access, and distribution in a virtual community. Architectural considerations have motivated the use of Grid technologies as they provide access to resources and services of different administrative domains in a transparent, seamless, and secure way. The Grid-based architecture has been endowed with a number of services including discovery and streaming of multimedia objects, multimedia content update, quality of service (QoS) management, and support for user authentication and authorization. A multimedia application based on the architecture is described and evaluated on a multi-domain network. Copyright

A two-level approach for ontology management in multi-agent systems

The work presented in this paper is an attempt to bridge two co-existing realities: semantic Web and multi-agent systems. Agents should be enhanced with tools and mechanisms in order to autonomously achieve this strategic and ambitious objective. In this paper, we focus on what we consider the central issue when moving towards the vision of semantic multi-agent systems: the ontology support. Due to the heterogeneity of resources available and roles played by different agents of a system, a one-level approach with the aim of being omni-comprehensive seems not to be feasible. In our opinion, a good compromise is represented by a two-level approach: a light ontology support embedded in each agent and one or more ontology servers providing a more expressive and powerful ontology support to the agents of the systems.

AN AGENT BASED LANGUAGE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF DISTRIBUTED SOFTWARE SYSTEMS

This paper presents a concurrent object-oriented language, called CUBL, that seems be suitable for the development and maintenance of multi-agent systems. This language is based on objects, called c_units, that act in parallel and communicate with each other through synchronous and asynchronous message passing, and allows the distribution of a program, that is, of its objects on a network of UNIX workstations. This language has been enriched with an agent architecture that offers some of more important features for agent-oriented programming and some advantages as regards the other implemented agent architectures. In particular this architecture allows the development of systems where agents communicate with each other through a high level agent communication language and can change their behavior during their life.