Multi-agent Information System Research Articles

A User-friendly Cloud-based Multi-agent Information System for Smart Energy-saving

<p>The study focused on leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) for efficient energy conservation in scientific applications. The proposed cloud-based multi-agent system merges various intelligent technologies to swiftly gather high-quality cloud data for effective smart energy-saving. Incorporating case-based reasoning (CBR), big data analysis, and intelligent user interfaces as key functionalities, the system utilized Web services, ontology, open data, and data mining. It expanded on the practical advancements of the multi-agent Dr. What-Info system for information collection. A Web services platform seamlessly gathers cloud interactions among subagents processing energy-saving data. Rigorous performance and operational experiments were conducted to demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the system interface, offering detailed insights into relevant R&D technologies and outcomes.</p> <p> </p>

A data science-based marketing decision support system for brand management

To improve the marketing activity and brand management and justify the most effective marketing decisions, organizations should implement different information technologies, mathematical methods and models into the marketing decision support system (MDSS). The goal of this paper is to form an architecture of an MDSS, the model base of which is developed on Data Science tools, in particular regression analysis and machine learning methods. The proposed MDSS is a multi-agent information system comprising nine intellectual agents (market environment monitoring, data processing, marketing mix modeling, price policy support, portfolio management, strategic analysis, forecasting, customer segmentation, and customer classification). The functionality of these agents is realized through Data Science, which allows for the optimization of marketing activities (e.g., an effective brand management strategy and its elements (portfolio strategy, price policy, and media strategy) or solving the problems of attracting new and retaining current customers with the maximal return on marketing investments). The MDSS analyzes the marketing environment, media activity, and business indicators by constructing different models and forecasting various combinations of marketing factors to select the best one. The joint work of MDSS agents provides decision-makers with interactive reports. The research findings offer a scientific basis for making effective marketing decisions based on data, and the proposed MDSS can become part of an intelligent system for planning marketing activities.

MODELS AND METHODS OF DESIGNING THE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF A VIRTUAL TEAM

The modern organizational system is constantly exposed to the turbulent internal and external environment. To ensure the effective implementation of projects, programs and project portfolios, the activities of all human resources should be rationally coordinated. The use of information systems for the management of the organization's activities is a rational toolkit for the implementation of such tasks. To develop this information system, organizational structures should be analyzed in order to develop a model of an information analytical system to support personnel decision-making. The positive and negative sides of various organizational structures of organizations are considered. The subject of the study is resource management in projects of safety-oriented systems. Management of human resource management projects and programs in the civil defense system. The purpose of the article is to improve the efficiency of human resources management of the civil defense system of Ukraine. Research methods: the method of analyzing hierarchies, graphodynamic theory, empirical research, analysis and synthesis. The following results were obtained: It is proposed to use the graphical form of presentation of organizational models that belong to safety-oriented systems. Conclusions: A model of a multi-agent information system has been developed. To solve the task of finding the optimal organizational structure, an efficiency criterion has been defined, according to which a comparative analysis of organizational structures will be carried out, and such a criterion can be the manager's expenses for the formation of a project team. Therefore, the formation of virtual teams allows you to effectively manage the human resources of the project. They are formed from a group of applicants who are united by a common goal. In the project team where a temporary virtual organization is formed, it is allowed to use special expert knowledge and at the same time the experts do not cross each other. Also, this format allows you to form teams that have geographic restrictions and at the same time save resources.

Iterative learning formation control for continuous-time multi-agent systems with randomly varying trial lengths

This paper investigates the iterative learning control for continuous-time multi-agent formation systems to realize the desired formation, where the trial lengths could be randomly varying at each iteration. To be specific, an ILC (iterative learning control) protocol with an iteratively moving average operator is established for multiple nonlinear agents with switching topologies, where a modified formation tracking error is defined and the control information from several previous trials is used to deal with the varying trail lengths. The convergence conditions are derived by using a redefied λ-norm with mathematical expectation for both the zero and varying initial shift cases, which ensure that the formation performance can still be maintained during the whole motion process when the actual trial length is greater or less than the desired one. In the end, simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Проблемы создания мультиагентной системы поддержки принятия решений на субфедеральном уровне

The article reveals the problems which may arise in the development of multi-agent information systems for modeling regional economy (MASMRE) based on geographic information and agent-based approaches to modeling economic space as well as to studying and forecasting the specifics of emerging spatial systems and the ways these systems may occur. MASMRE proposes an organizational system and open source tools to implement modern digital technologies and also an agent-based approach to modeling the regional economy, which helps to sustain innovative momentum for scientific and scientific-technical interaction, conduct joint research in remote access by providing accessible services, modules and algorithms, and allows the local governments, businesses and non-profit organizations to plan and monitor various projects implemented in a particular territory.

Controllability of continuum ensemble of formation systems over directed graphs

We propose in the paper a novel framework about using a common control input to simultaneously steer an infinite ensemble of networked control systems. We address the problem of co-designing information flow topology and network dynamics of every individual networked system so that a continuum ensemble of such systems is controllable. To keep the problem tractable, we focus in the paper on a special class of ensembles systems, namely ensembles of multi-agent formation systems. Specifically, we consider an ensemble of formation systems indexed by a parameter in a compact real, analytic manifold. Every individual formation system in the ensemble is composed of N agents. These agents evolve in Rn and can access relative positions of their neighbors. The information flow topology within every individual formation system is, by convention, described by a directed graph where the vertices correspond to the N agents and the directed edges indicate the information flow. For simplicity, we assume in the paper that all the individual formation systems share the same information flow topology described by a common digraph G. Amongst other things, we establish a sufficient condition for approximate path-controllability of the continuum ensemble of formation systems. We show that if the digraph G is strongly connected and the number N of agents in each individual formation system is greater than (n+1), then every such system in the ensemble is simultaneously approximately path-controllable over a path-connected, open dense subset.

Reward Mechanism in Multi-agent Information System Integration Based on Bilateral Moral Hazard

Bilateral moral hazard is constructed over undertaking information system integration and resource suppliers based on compensation. Invariable compensation is needed to encourage the participators in making appropriate efforts. From the angle of knowledge accumulation, the article built a remuneration model and further obtain the operational mechanism for such an integration. Conclusion indicates that the optimal effort level of original service provider and the intervention of remuneration does cast impacts on the integration process in terms of the commissioning party. Moreover, it brought forward the optimal system pathway on which best efforts could implement its functions with the effect of bilateral moral hazard.

Conservation and decay laws in distributed coordination control systems

In this paper we discuss and discover several conservation and associated decay laws in distributed coordination control systems, in particular in formation shape control systems. Specifically, we reveal conservations of linear momentum and angular momentum for gradient-based multi-agent formation systems modelled by single integrators, and show several corresponding conservation/decay laws for double-integrator formation stabilization systems and double-integrator flocking systems, respectively. By exploiting translation and rotation symmetry properties and insights from Noether’s theorem, we further establish a multi-agent version of the relation between symmetry and conservation laws for gradient-based coordination systems derived from general potential functions, from which we generalize the conservation/decay laws to more general networked coordination control systems. The results hold in ambient spaces of any dimensions, and we focus on the 2-D and 3-D cases due to their natural interpretation as positions of agents.

Сonstruction of multilevel multiagent information systems based on knowledge

This article discusses the designing of multi-level information systems based on a subject domain model in the form of ontology. The principles of construction of multilevel systems are formulated; description structure and management levels of such systems are defined. Formal model of multilevel system is proposed. Proposed model is based on set-theoretic approach and takes into account aspects of multilevel system functioning: hierarchical, administrative, functional, and communicational. The peculiarities of creation and use of such systems are analyzed. Semantics of each level of the multilevel system based on ontological description is itemized. An approach to building of multilevel agents-based information systems using ontology of subject domains of their application is proposed. The universality of model description of agents within of the proposed approach is shown. The main roles of the agents as parts of multilevel systems and aspects of using and enriching by them of knowledge about the subject area of application are defined. The proposed approach to the designing of multilevel agent-based systems ensures the harmonization of semantics, functionality and architectural design implementations, and allows to realize pass-through process design with a combination of different notation for modeling systems. This model represents different levels of abstraction when considering information systems, while maintaining a meaningful relationship between these levels, ensuring correct transition from one level to another abstract representation, without losing the semantic unity at all levels.

A Novel Deep Web Data Mining Algorithm based on Multi-Agent Information System and Collaborative Correlation Rule

Along with the rapid advancement of Internet technology and machine learning science, the data mining techniques have been widely applied on the web page information pattern analysis issues. To enhance the traditional mining algorithms theoretically and numerically, we propose the novel deep web data mining algorithm based on multi-agent information system and collaborative correlation rule in this manuscript. Firstly, we review the latest web mining methodologies to serve as the comparison objects. Then, we introduce the revised agent based algorithm. MAS consists of more than one agent, MAS using parallel distributed processing technology and modular design thought and the complex system is divided into relatively independent agent subsystem. Later, we combine the AdaBoost method to propose the collaborative correlation rule. As the combination, we use the mentioned two techniques to form the optimized and enhanced deep web data mining algorithm with the implementation of programming languages. The experimental result proves the feasibility of our approach and compared with other contemporary state-of-the-art algorithms, our method outperforms and achieves better accuracy with low time-consuming.

Agent Technologies for Polythematic Organizations Information-Analytical Support

Large scientific organizations, laboratories, departments and scientific groups exercise need in information support due to issues related to the navigation among huge amount of information in the Internet that is growing every day. This paper describes agent-based approach that is used in Multi-agent information and analytical system (MIAS) developed at the National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI” and addressed challenges in the information support that was encountered by our partners: the “Plasma Physics” Department, Department of “Laser physics”, laboratory “Photonics” and others. The MIAS support of object-oriented approach and international standards of linked data contributes to the development of future information systems that will enable forecasting on specific scientific field.

Regular Agent Technologies for the Formation of Dynamic Profile

Constantly increasing number of information items (i.e. published or digital subjects) set the necessary goal to develop new approaches for filtering and structuring data. This paper describes agent-based approach that is used in Multi-agent information and analytical system (MIAS) developed at the National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI” in order to form a dynamic profile of the Human Brain Project, which includes general information, identification of funding, interrelation of subprojects and new technologies that are being developed in the course of the project. The MIAS support of object-oriented approach and international standards of linked data contributes to the development of future information systems that will enable forecasting on specific scientific field.

Towards Multi-Agent Health Information Systems

One of the key challenges in the healthcare sector is to adapt Health Information Systems to requirements coming from changing societies. In recent years, governments and international healthcare organizations defined a series of requirements for new generation Health Information Systems: they have to preserve past investments on legacy systems, but must also integrate new technologies, include the patient among their users, and ensure that clinical information are available at all times, even in places far from where information are physically stored. This paper proposes a multi agent-oriented architecture for Health Information Systems, which uses international standards for communication and management of clinical documents. The architecture tries to effectively model a generic healthcare organization, and aims at being easily extensible and adaptable to the particularities of specific healthcare systems. The authors present two experimental scenarios to test the proposed multi-agent health information system. In the first, they show how to model a specific use case, a radiology workflow, using agents and well-known standards; in the second one the authors demonstrate how a mobile application can use the services provided by the agents to support the medical staff in an emergency situation.

Improving Emergency Response Systems Through the Use of Intelligent Information Systems

The shifts experienced in the environment of disaster operations and emergency response are reshaping the context of information acquisition and utilization in hospitals. In addition to the formulation of emergency response plans, healthcare organizations (especially hospitals) are being challenged by the growing need to maintain and share real time information necessary for the improvement of emergency response processes. Such information-related attention originates from many emergency-specific concerns including the limited focus of current emergency response information systems, decision limitations that challenge the formulation of decision support applications and the characterization of user requirements, the heterogeneity of emergency response information and the difficulty of integrating spatially distributed information sources. The increased attention in emergency response information also emerges from the recent technological developments (in terms of hardware, software functionalities, databases and telecommunication, among others) which significantly affected the processing, storage and retrieval of real time information. This paper focuses on the examination of the context of emergency response in Al Ahsaa area of Saudi Arabia and the applicability of multi-agent information systems through the proposal of an integrated architecture. Then it sheds light on the implementation concerns to ensure the contribution of the proposed architecture towards the engagement of stakeholders, the improvement of the availability and accessibility of emergency management information and the harmonization of emergency response operations. .

Information Security Approach in Open Distributed Multi-Agent Virtual Learning Environment

This paper presented the main information, security problems and threats in open multi-agent distributed e-learning information systems and Proposed various approaches to solve information security attacks in virtual learning environment using service oriented architecture which based on multi-agent information systems architecture, the solution on the multi-agent learning information system implementation based on the implementation of two types of systems the first system with the centralized mobile agent information security management and the second system with decentralized mobile agents security management, and proposed the migration behaviour simulation for their active software components (software agents).

Managing Stakeholder Concerns in Large-Scale Multi-Agent Information Systems

Software agents' technology provides a variety of decision support tools for the improvement of emergency response processes. It improves information availability, automates tasks and enhances information accessibility and sharing. However, due to the heterogeneity of emergency response data and the diversity of stakeholders (and accordingly their objectives), the identification and management of cross cutting concerns is looming very big. Over time, some software agent engineering methodologies are being used for the crystallization of cross cutting concerns and information requirements. This paper examines the limitations of such methodologies and proposes the use of system innovation concepts for the management of stakeholder concerns in the emergency response management system in Al Ahsaa area.

Multi-agent information system design and implementation: empirical analysis of IS subsystems execution and development order algorithm

Designing an information system demands intense efforts, although a lot of operations that are involved have a potential to be automated or semiautomated. In our previous work we developed advanced agents for automatic determination of IS subsystems through k-way cuts and automatic determination of IS subsystems execution order through an evolutionary approach. Another development was also achieved in automatic database normalization with a view to facilitate and speed up IS design. In this paper we conduct empirical analysis of the algorithm for automatic determination of IS subsystems execution order to establish what its limitations are, whether it behaves satisfactorily and what further improvements are possible to ensure its wider application.

A collaborative food safety service agent architecture with alerts and trust

With the recent advances in Internet and mobile technologies, there are increasing demands for ubiquitous access to food safety information for service integration and gathering first hand information. However, due to disparate food trading information among different food suppliers throughout the food supply chain such as food importers, food wholesalers, food retailers, it is still difficult for citizens to use them effectively during their marketplace shopping. To overcome this problem, we propose a Collaborative Food Safety Agent System (CFSAS) based on a scalable, flexible, and intelligent Multi-Agent Information System (MAIS) architecture for proactive aids and trust-based decision support on food purchasing to citizens. We formulate our MAIS architecture for CFSAS further with agent clusters based on a case study of the Center for Food Safety (CFS) in Hong Kong. Agent clusters may comprise several types of agents to achieve the goals involved in the major processes of a food safety mechanism. We show how agents help citizens better plan, understand, and specify their preferences collaboratively with the CFSAS. We further illustrate how this can be implemented with Web service technologies to integrate disparate food information resources along the food supply chain.

An agent based approach for simulating complex systems with spatial dynamics application in the land use planning

In this research a new agent based approach for simulating complex systems with spatial dynamics is presented. We propose an architecture based on coupling between two systems: multi-agent systems and geographic information systems. We also propose a generic model of agent-oriented simulation that we will apply to the field of land use planning. In fact, simulating the evolution of the urban system is a key to help decision makers to anticipate the needs of the city in terms of installing new equipment and opening new urbanization’ areas to install the new population.

Introduction to the special issue on engineering semantic agent systems

1. IntroductionIntegrating agent and semantic web technologiesin orderto extendthe abilityof programmes havelong been hailed as the panacea to serving usersmore efficiently and with less human intervention(Hendler, 2001). The idea was to significantlyaffect the performance of communicating multi-agent systems through utilization of web services(WS) and ontologies. The World Wide Webhas become prevalent and the semantic webhas matured to a great extent evolving throughindigenous data and protocol standards. Ontol-ogy-based applications have been on the rise andmajor enterprises are starting to take up thesemantic web technologies. However, the pace ofdevelopment in the semantic agent arena early inthis decade was nowhere near desirable. Weorganizedaworkshoponthetopicinconjunctionwith the 30th COMPSAC (2006) Annual Inter-national Computer Software and ApplicationsConference that took place in Chicago, Illinois,USA (ESAS, 2006). Thus the series of IEEEInternational Workshop on Engineering Seman-tic Agent Systems (ESAS) was born in 2006.Within months the ‘Special Issue on AI, Agents,and the Web’ appeared, paving the way forrecognition of interplay and for betterintegrationof the three branches (Hendler, 2006).Following the major success of the inauguralworkshop, the 2nd IEEE International Work-shop on ESAS took place in the bustling capitalof China (ESAS, 2007). All in proper perspective,ESAS 2007 was a tribute to its main theme,namely, ‘Applying Semantic Web Technologies inResearch and Development of Software Agents,Mobile Agents and Multi-Agent Systems’, contri-buting to the refinement of the concepts ofsemantic agent systems (SAS) and helping tobring forward better practices of engineeringthem.ThiswasfollowedupbyThe3rdIEEEInternational Workshop on ESAS which tookplace in Turku, the oldest provincial capital cityof Finland (ESAS, 2008).Theinterplayofsemanticwebtechnologiesandagent systems is promising a new dimension ofcapability in developing semantic-based multi-agent information systems. The ESAS Workshopseries aims at garnering the synergy of bothworlds by taking up the common research issue.The topics covered span a wide spectrum of boththeory and practice in the semantic web, agents,and AI, with due emphasis on the practicalaspects of certain specific topics, such as autono-mous semantic agents, context-aware intelligentagents, agents as semantic WS, software agents,mobile agents, agent architectures, multi-agentsystems, agent communities, cooperation andgoal seeking through sharing policy and ontol-ogy, safety and security in systems, and QoSissues. Effectingknowledgeengineeringasaprac-tice and expert systems in general are the primaryDOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0394.2011.00585.x