Multiagent Systems

We shall provide a unifying framework based on interaction models that are mobile in the sense that they may be transferred to other components, this being a mechanism for Web service composition and for coalition formation.

A key contribution of OpenKnowledge is to demonstrate that by shifting the emphasis to interaction (the details of which may be hidden from users) we can obtain knowledge sharing of sufficient quality for sustainable communities of practise without the barrier of complex meta-data provision prior to community formation. We ground our research in two testbed arenas: bioinformatics and emergency response.

This project proposes a new paradigm for next generation distributed systems. The new paradigm will be structured around the concept of agreement between computational agents. These agreements must be consistent with the normative context where they are established and will permit, once accepted, that the agents call for mutual services and honour them.

An entity, by the fact of being autonomous, may choose whether to fulfil an agreement or not, and it should fulfil them when there is an obligation to do so derived from the standing agreements. Autonomy, interaction, mobility and openness are the characteristics that the paradigm will cover from a theoretical and practical perspective. Semantic alignment, negotiation, argumentation, virtual organizations, learning, real time, and several other technologies will be in the sandbox to define, specify and verify such systems. Both functional and non-functional properties will be studied. Security on execution will be based on trust and reputation measures. These measures will help in the decision making of the agents to determine with whom to interact and what terms and conditions to accept. Virtual worlds technology will be explored to give high usability to the tools. Scalability will be guaranteed by the design of new algorithms for semantic alignment and through the use of electronic institutions.

The project will also build algorithms, software platforms and three demonstrators on electronic procurement, mobile health and water conflict resolution.

The objective of IBROW is to develop intelligent brokers that are able to distributively configure reusable components into knowledge systems through the World-Wide Web.

The WWW is changing the nature of software development to a distributive plug & play process, which requires a new kind of managing software: intelligent software brokers.

IBROW will integrate research on heterogeneous DB, interoperability and Web technology with knowledge-system technology and ontologies.

This project intends to make a step forward in the electronic commerce state of the art by building a tool that permits the construction of agent-mediated electronic markets. It is expected that during the next decade this type of software structures will be common on Internet. We'll profit >from the experience of the IIIA in the design of negotiation models, case-based reasoning, uncertainty management, an language development to formalize the concept of agent-mediated electronic institution. This formalization will serve to develop a visual specification language that verifies the correction of the diferent components of such institutions (behaviour rules, communication protocols, commitments, agents flux, etc.) Finally, and once the specification of an institution is verified, an agent server to permit the interaction of exogenous agents will be customised. In order to help in the use of the so specified institutions, we'll develop parametrizable agents (PITAs) that will permit the users to participate in the institutions in an off-line manner. These PITAs will be parametrised by users according to their preferences and will be in charge of closing deals following the user instructions codified in the form of negotiation strategies -to be studies also in the project. Among others, we will use case-based reasoning and possibilistic logic to generate intelligent negotiation strategies.

Last, and to verify the theoretical ideas of the design of electronic institutions and negotiation strategies, we will build three pilot tests on public prucurement and fish auctions. To do this, we have signed a collaboration agreement with three companies responsible of these activities.

Electronic institutions (EIs) allow to establish interaction conventions among agents --persons and/or programs--on the basis of a distributed, open and computationally dynamic environment.

This project has as a main goal the study of techniques which allow to provide EIs with autonomic capabilities that allow them to offer a dynamic response under changing circumstances by adopting interaction conventions, producing a high-level development environment for autonomous electronic institutions (AEI).

From all those features characterizing an autonomous system, we will focus mainly on the study of auto configuration and reconfiguration. Besides, the development environment will provide us with tools for specification and analysis of AEI which will allow us to reduce the time and complexity of their development. In order to validate the resulting framework, we will carry out experiments based on real-world problems modelled by means of AEIs.

More information: http://e-institutions.iiia.csic.es

This project is about exploiting the predominance of social networking using autonomic software agents to enrich, encourage and enliven engagement with online cultural artefacts such as from a museum or a gallery. With the current problems in the European financial debt, many cultural institutions are planning to shorten the length that visitors can physically enter. In the UK for example we have heard of plans that the British Museum will close earlier and possibly shut down completely for one day a week because of the massive cuts in funding that were presented in the UK Chancellors speech detailing reduction in money for the cultural sector. The basic idea is to have your friends, museums, art galleries and theatres all in your pocket through your handheld device.
In this project we will harness the power of autonomic agents that work on behalf of human users in an infrastructure that allows for these agents to communicate and negotiate on behalf of their human users to facilitate a collective and social experience of online cultural visits. For example, we could imagine a scenario where 4 students are visiting an art museum with the desire to purchase something (a print or a physical copy of an artefact for example) for a friend. They would wish to be able negotiate about what to see or experience online, what additional information they want to consider, what comments from what previous visitors over any commentary they individually or collectively want to leave for others and, eventually, over what they collectively choose to purchase for their friend.
We are concerned with the fundamental question of building autonomic agents that can represent their users needs, argue and negotiate on behalf of their users with other software and human agents, maintain models of the other autonomic agents in the system and proactively develop plans and scenarios for their human counterparts. In order for autonomic agents to interact in open systems such as those we are describing we will use the BDI agent architecture (arguably the most important symbolic agent architecture of the last 20 years) on a well-developed infrastructure (called electronic institutions) that facilitates autonomic agent interaction.
In short we believe BDI architectures represent the stronger and best-developed software engineering device for building autonomic agents, that electronic institutions is the best developed infrastructure for supporting the interaction of autonomous interaction, and that the idea of enabling richer social exploration of cultural artefacts online is a timely and critical case study to address.

The COMRIS project aims to develop, demonstrate and experimentally evaluate a scalable approach to integrating the Inhabited Information Spaces schema with a concept of software agents. The COMRIS vision of co-habited mixed-reality information spaces emphasizes the co-habitation of software and human agents in a pair of closely coupled spaces, a virtual and a real one. However, this project does not pursue the perceptual integration of real and virtual space into an augmented reality. Instead the coupling aims at focusing the large potential for useful social interactions in each of the spaces, so that they become more manageable, goal-directed and effective.

Creating software applications that foster web-based social interaction is still very hard and currently beyond the capabilities of end-users, since highly skilled web application developers are needed. Consequently, the cost of community formation and evolution beyond those based on simple, general and stable interaction patterns is still too high. Individuals, however, looking either for new, partially formed, or already standing communities whose interactions are much more domain specific and specialised need software tools and platforms that support the formation of and the adjustment to communities, as well as the adaptation to new, perhaps dynamically evolving, events during a community’s lifespan.

CBIT aims at transcending the current level of social software applications and platforms for community building into the meta-level for which today’s applications will arise as particular instances. For this we shall approach community building as an iterative process consisting of community formation, interaction, and growth. In CBIT a community is understood as a group of peers whose interactions are defined via agreements on social contracts on behaviour, meaning, and reliability, and represented in a community charter. Consequently, community building will be subject to the mechanisms to be developed in the scope of this project for charter specification and selection, charter grounding and enactment, and charter revision and modification. To concretise this approach, we shall realise it for a community-building process that fosters collaboration in the generation of digital educational contents.

Electronic Institutions are a way to implement interaction conventions for agents -human or software- who can establish commitments on an open environment.
This project involves four lines of activity:
1. Exploration of flexible convention making and enforcement.
2. Study of the usage of institutional constructs in social systems modelling.
3. Development of an institutional software layer to specify, activate and test electronic institutions.
4. Experiments on actual E-Institutions.

Self-* systems, where * stands for a number of properties such as self-organisation, self-configuration, self-diagnose or self-repair, are systems capable of managing themselves. They provide the most convenient alternative for software development in open, unstructured and dynamic environments. These are the characteristics of a new surge of emerging application domains composed with a wealth of devices and software and human agents. These applications require the effective coordination among participants to achieve their global and individual goals. Furthermore, coordination mechanisms have to be adapted over time to continue being effective under environmental changes.
Virtual worlds (VW) are interactive, computer generated 3D environments where participants come together for a variety of self and group determined purposes. They are a successful technology to integrate humans in computer systems.
The main aim of this project is to apply multi-agent technologies to the engineering of self-* systems composed of software and/or human agents, while paying special attention to those that are to be virtually embedded. We propose to achieve that aim by fulfilling the following three objectives:

1. To design new computational models and algorithms for their application to the achievement of coordination in self-* systems.

2. To develop a simulation environment to test virtually-embedded self-* systems.

3. To construct three proof-of-concept prototypes that illustrate the algorithms and technologies created in the project.

SINTELNET is a Coordination Action whose aim is to explore the interplay of future and emerging information technologies and the development of Philosophy, Humanities and the Social Sciences.

Traditional distinctions between the natural, the social and the artificial are becoming more and more blurred as radically new forms of Information Technology-enabled social environments are formed. These changes create the need to re-explore basic concepts of Philosophy, Humanities and Social Sciences.

The aim of the European Network for Social Intelligence is twofold:

- To look into those IT-enabled domains as a means for the critical examination of those basic concepts and,
- To propose new approaches to understand and develop future IT-enabled social situations, by adapting and applying traditional concepts.

SINTELNET stimulates debate and coordinates scientific research by
- Organising a series of inter-disciplinary, thematic workshops that bring together key players in diverse, relevant sub-areas.
- Hosting Working Groups who will deliver studies and position papers as well as identify emerging topics and important research challenges.
- Sponsoring short time academic visits and organization of related events
- Creating guidelines and policy documents.

La formulación de la Open Innovation ha supuesto una revolucionaria forma de plantearse el desarrollo de nuevas iniciativas: mediante la creación de entornos colaborativos, se logran sacar adelante proyectos novedosos, de una manera rápida y eficaz.

Ante el éxito de esta nueva filosofía de I+D, se hace posible abordar nuevas problemáticas. En este contexto es en el que emergen nuevas iniciativas, acordes con la situación actual. Por otra parte, también nos debemos situar en un contexto en el que los conceptos de ecología y sostenibilidad empiezan a posicionarse dentro del ámbito de las empresas. De este hecho nace una nueva filosofía de negocio sostenible, en la que se sitúan nuevos proyectos que buscan no sólo ser tolerantes con el medio ambiente, sino jugar un papel activo en lo que al beneficio medioambiental se refiere.

De esta manera surge el concepto de Green Open Innovation, liderado e impulsado por organizaciones pioneras, destinadas a encontrar nuevas maneras de optimizar las tecnologías para así lograr una mayor eficiencia energética (con la futura reducción de costes que ello conlleva) al mismo tiempo que se comparten y proponen acciones ecológicas. En esta línea, tener un entorno de simulación donde implementar ideas de la I+D y transferirlas al mercado dará valor añadido y minimizará los riesgos de aplicación de estas ideas a la realidad, a través de herramientas de generación de informes y análisis de parámetros, gran laguna en este tipo de procesos. En tiempos de crisis, para mejorar o prevenirlos, conseguir herramientas que favorezcan la gestión sostenible y eficiente de los recursos y la generación de valor para las PYMES son la mejor estrategia.

Open Innovation presenta un modelo donde los nuevos productos provienen tanto de fuentes internas como externas, y donde éstas pueden entrar a formar parte del proceso de innovación en todos los puntos de la cadena hasta llegar al producto final. Es decir, la innovación abierta no contempla las innovaciones sólo como input en el proceso, sino también como output.

Alcance
El proyecto que se desarrollará en la presente propuesta tiene como objetivo el estudio, diseño y desarrollo de una plataforma tecnológica basada en las tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones e integrada en el marco del Internet 2.0, para crear un entorno económico alrededor de la sostenibilidad y el medio ambiente, principalmente orientado a PYMES pero también hacia la gran Empresa, sobre una plataforma socio-tecnológica (plataforma de Green Open Innovation) desarrollada en el medio Internet.

El entorno económico ha de facilitar la emergencia de iniciativas conjuntas entre distintas Empresas para la generación e intercambio de ideas y la organización de proyectos conjuntos de I+D+i bajo el paradigma de la Innovación Abierta.

La plataforma se especializará en iniciativas de desarrollo económico (nuevas oportunidades de negocio, nuevos modelos de colaboración) en el marco de la sostenibilidad y la mejora del medio ambiente.

There is a need for trustful business environments that will open up the emarkets to a greater population of traders. This project looks at the development of believable emarkets that address this need. Proposed 3D electronic institution technology is expected to facilitate the establishment of robust business structures as the believability of the business activities and interactions in such emarkets will ensure the principles of trust and reputation in the electronic markets of tomorrow.
Administering organisation: University of Technology, Sydney
Participants: Prof SJ Simoff; Prof JK Debenham; Prof C Sierra; Prof IF Wilkinson

The Liquid Publications Project is a Framework Program 7 (FP7) funded research project in the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) – OPEN series. This introduction to the project is intended to describe what we’re trying to accomplish in a more publicly accessible form. In the following sections we’ll cover the Liquid Publications Project’s motivation, objectives, potential benefits, challenges, and research plans.

Motivation

The production of scientific knowledge in the form of conference papers, journal articles, and textbooks has failed to keep pace with advances in Information and Communications Technology (ICT). The World-Wide Web and other advances in computer technologies have had noticeable effect on the ways scientific activity is conducted, but little effect on the ways scientific knowledge is produced, disseminated, evaluated, and consumed.

The Liquid Publications Project is based on the primary intuition that the evolution and use of scientific knowledge objects is similar to the evolution and use of open-source software. Both scientific knowledge and open-source software are complex, malleable, artistic creations of the human mind that evolve in multiple directions through collaboration. Further, just as computer software has become de-coupled from specific computer hardware, scientific knowledge has become de-coupled from the specific physical aspects of a scientific field through storage, manipulation, simulation, and recombination in electronic form.

While scientific collaborations and collaboration technologies have advanced, the collaborative evaluation of scientific knowledge has not. Scientific communities continue to evaluate scientific knowledge using essentially the same peer-review techniques used 100 years ago.

Project Objectives and Benefits

This project will explore how ICT and lessons from the software engineering and social web communities can be applied to provoke a radical paradigm shift shift in the way scientific knowledge is created, disseminated, evaluated, and maintained. This new paradigm will transform a scientific publication from a static artifact to a Liquid Publication that can take multiple forms, that evolves continuously, and is enriched by multiple sources. The expected benefits of this transformation are:

• Earlier and greater circulation of innovative ideas, hence, more effective dissemination.

• Collaborative research efforts built on previous knowledge.

• Optimization of the time researchers spend creating, assessing and disseminating knowledge while improving the quality of the paper selection processes for conferences and journals.

• Rationalization of credit attribution processes based on social networks, team and community work, collaborative problem solving, social reputation, and distribution of knowledge.

• Delivery of innovative products and services for publishers that add value to their traditional businesses.

Research Challenges

Achieving program objectives and realizing the benefits presents both technical and social research challenges. Technical challenges include how to identify a model for scientific knowledge creation and dissemination that encourages early release of results, facilitates collaboration, assigns credit fairly, and simplifies dissemination; how to model and structure digital objects that embody a variety of evolutionary and collaborative knowledge creation processes; and how to identify social, low-effort, and continuous quality assessment methods. The primary social challenge is to gain support from the scientific community who will have to depart from the current publication selection models and embrace a radical change in the way scientific contributions are created, managed, and evaluated.

Research Plan

We aim to overcome the research challenges and achieve the project objectives by modeling the three main interacting components: Scientific Knowledge Objects, People, and Processes.

Scientific Knowledge Objects (SKO for short) embody the digital aspects of a traditional scientific paper, plus the evolutionary, social, collaborative, composable, and evolving nature of scientific knowledge creation processes. Defining, implementing, and testing SKOs will form the basis of the research.

People are the agents involved in the scientific knowledge processes, playing various cooperating and competing roles. Investigating roles and role interations will be a primary research activity of the project.

Processes govern the creation, evaluation, and evolution of SKOs and, hence, manage their lifecycle. These processes include modification, evolution, management (for example: access, intellectual property concerns, or legal aspects), and assessment.

In summary, this project will examine the complex web of interactions between SKOs, people, roles, and processes.

The IIIA is in charge of producing a document on the state of the art and prospective developments of dispute resolution technologies for a "white book" on mediation that has been commissioned by the Justice Department of the Catalan Government. 

The objective of the White Book on Mediation is to produce and in-depth study of mediation and dispute resolution mechanisms that might be an alternative to customary judiciary mechanisms, in Catalonia. The production of the white book is led by the Institute of Law and Technology (IDT) of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and in addition to the IIIA, twelve entities of the catalonian government are involved plus the Carles Pi i Sunyer foundation, the University of Barcelona (UB) and the Open University of Catalonia (UOC).

El projecte haurà de permetre la definició i la construcció d’una eina de suport a les decisions metodològiques dels mestres, que els hi proposi itineraris formatius amb els materials (activitats generadores d’aprenentatge) que s’hauran categoritzat i etiquetat en funció de la seves característiques en relació a com s’aprenen i que s’adaptaran a les característiques i condicionants de cada alumne.
El sistema, a més, permetrà l’autorregulació de l’aprenentatge per part dels alumnes, gràcies a eines que fomentin i estimulin la metacognició. D’aquesta manera, mitjançant un canvi tecnològic, es possibilita un canvi de paradigma metodològic a dues bandes: El professorat podrà atendre molt millor les diferències individuals de l’alumnat i els alumnes podran assumir el control del seu procés d’aprenentatge.
Per una altra banda el projecte pretén combatre l’alt percentatge de fracàs escolar i d’abandonament dels estudis obligatoris, gràcies, precisament a l’alta adaptabilitat dels continguts a les necessitats educatives específiques de cada perfil d’alumne.
Per últim, pretén compensar la fractura digital amb l’ús de les TIC, afavorint la seva incorporació a l’aula, integrant-les en la quotidianitat.

http://megatron.iiia.csic.es/llint

The main objective of this project is to explore the emergent scientific space generated
by the intersection of three different paradigms dedicated to the study of
self-organizing mechanisms in social systems: prehistoric etno-anthropology and
social anthropology, experimental economics, and multiagent systems.

The project aims to study the mechanisms of self-organization in societies where it does
not exist a centralized control mechanism and where the institutional level is
almost inexistent.

We will study the mechanisms in charge of self-organization and distributed
social control (as it is the case of reputation) that generate social norms in
human societies and that can be easily applicable to virtual environments,
either entirely populated by artificial entities (autonomous agents) or virtual
societies, where both humans and virtual agents coexist.

The work developed should serve as a guide to treat similar research topics
where the behaviour of a group of individuals responds to the individual
adoption of certain social conventions. This research can lead to three
different and complementary paths: (i) a theoretical work where different
social coordination mechanisms are identified by using the models and
simulations suggested in this project; (ii) an instrumental work where the methodology
and tools developed under this project are refined to build a technological
corpus for social scientists; (iii) and finally, the application of several
mechanisms for social coordination and the technological corpus in virtual
communities as the integration of web services, ubiquitous and pervasive
computing applications, and the online gaming applications.