Tomás Vlcek

Communication security in multi-agent systems

Both, research and application development in the area of multi-agent systems currently undertakes rapid expansion. In order to use multi-agent technology in real applications, it is inevitable to ensure security, integrity and authenticity of inter-agent communication. Various securitysystems, developed for different applications have been used in multi-agent system (MAS). Alternatively, MAS are designed with respect to the specific communication security requirements. This paper describes the architecture and implementation of the security (X-Security) system, which implemets authentication and secure communication among agents. System uses certification authority (CA) and ensures full cooperation of secured agents and already existing (unsecured) agents. Principle of the system integration into already existing MAS is described here as well as possibility of its usage for mobile agents. Paper deals as well with security mechanisms activity during inaccessibility of CA and possibility of CAs recreation. Security system was designed according the FIPA standards.

Some aspects of knowledge engineering

Knowledge engineering is a part of Artificial Intelligence which includes all activities connected with the transfer of knowledge from knowledge sources (experts, data files etc.) into knowledge-based systems. It was recognized as a bottleneck of current systems applications (“Feigenbaums bottleneck”). This contribution deals with three aspects of knowledge engineering: It provides a brief overview of the knowledge acquisition methods and contains the discussion on the significance of the object-orientation paradigm for knowledge structuring and integration. The attention is focused on mutual impacts of software and knowledge engineering.

Considerations on Secure Fipa Compliant Agent Architecture

This paper is intended to support security instruments for FIPA (http://wwwfipa.org) compliant architectures. These security instruments, should increase trust and confidentiality within and among agent communities/technology and provide security mechanisms, as encryption, authentication, message integrity services, etc., employing cryptography algorithms.

Production planning systems with AI philosophy

Abstract In this article we present our experience with the development of several systems for computer-aided production planning. The real life production planning tasks can be decomposed into two steps. The latter is the scheduling task, including resource allocation, which must conform to rules, created in the former step. They describe technological conditions that are specific for the manufacturing domain and the factory organization. Thus, the production plan may be viewed as a set of rules that may be considered as constraints for the scheduling task. We focus our analysis on the problem of how to specify these rules. We also show how these plans as manufacturing instruction sequences are structured for diverse production goals. A brief survey of the systems the authors have developed is given as well.

Experiments on Coupling Expert and Database Systems

The paper describes an extended rule-based expert system with the capability to invoke external programs and the the access to a set of database files. The necessity to integrate an expert system with database as well as with external programs (e. g. on-line sensor data input) has been recognized during real applications development. The particular solutions and experience even in simple MS-DOS environment are illustrated by examples.

Secure FIPA Compliant Agent Architecture Draft

This paper deals with introducing general and open security mechanisms into the FIPA (http://www.fipa.org) compliant multi-agent architectures. A general overview of possible security threats and security services (countermeasures) is given first; then additional requirements, our design decisions and points of view concerning fundamental services (confidentiality, authentication, authorization, and integrity) are outlined. Further mentioned services, based on the fundamental ones, can be without concern added to the system.

Man-Machine Interface for CIM

The aim of this paper is to introduce the progress made by the authors in the development of a methodology for modelling the dependencies among data entries in a dialog box and design of a software tool supporting the user interface programming. An object oriented dialog box model and an event driven user interface architecture are analysed. The principal features of the user interface constructor consisting of a graphical user interface model editor and source code generator are introduced. The formal analysis of dependence among dialog entries [3] is utilised.

Software development for cim — a case study

Abstract The paper describes a CIM system designed to meet the needs of a Czechoslovak industrial company. After a brief analysis of the particular system, general considerations on software development and rapid prototyping are presented. Software engineering and artificial intelligence points of view are discussed.