In this chapter we discuss how semantic technologies in general and specific Semantic Web standards in particular can contribute to the goal of achieving interoperability between independent, loosely coupled, heterogeneous, autonomous... more
In this chapter we discuss how semantic technologies in general and specific Semantic Web standards in particular can contribute to the goal of achieving interoperability between independent, loosely coupled, heterogeneous, autonomous software components (i.e. agents) and for the realization of open interaction systems. In particular we will discuss how those technologies have been used for the definition of the semantics of agent communication languages, for the definition of norms and policies used to regulate interactions in open frameworks, and for defining efficient mechanisms for matching demands (i.e., content they need) to supplies (i.e., available content) in telecommunication networks. In particular regarding this last type of application we describe a techno-economic approach for solving the matching problem, by means of a multi-agent system representing an electronic marketplace. Its functionality is realized by applying a semantic-aware content discovery model with two-level filtering in order to finally recommend a ranked set of eligible content to the users in response to their requests. The filtering processes not only consider the semantic information associated with the available content, but also ratings regarding the actual performance of businesses that act as content providers as well as the prices paid by businesses for advertising their content.
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Different access control models are presented in literature for semantic data, allowing the expression and enforcement of access policies that are based on roles and other attributes of the requesting user usually. We investigate a... more
Different access control models are presented in literature for semantic data, allowing the expression and enforcement of access policies that are based on roles and other attributes of the requesting user usually. We investigate a different access control perspective in the present work, allowing a Policy Administrator to define system obligations that are focused on the enhanced semantics, with a particular reference to the information that can be inferred from the starting knowledge representation, using DL reasoning. That is done by applying a paradigm for the specification and enforcement of access control obligations to the SPARQL-DL query model for OWL ontologies. The presented approach allows more than a simple permit/deny control on inferred data (e.g., data can be returned, but after an anonymization process), together with the possibility of specifying very expressive policies.
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Virginia Dignum Department of Information and Computing Sciences Universiteit Utrecht The Netherlands e-mail: virginia@cs.uu.nl ... Eric Matson Department of Computer Science and Engineering Wright State University Dayton, Ohio, USA... more
Virginia Dignum Department of Information and Computing Sciences Universiteit Utrecht The Netherlands e-mail: virginia@cs.uu.nl ... Eric Matson Department of Computer Science and Engineering Wright State University Dayton, Ohio, USA e-mail: eric.matson@wright.edu ... Alexander Artikis (National Centre for Scientific Research-Demokritos, Greece) Guido Boella (University of Torino, Italy) Olivier Boissier (EMSE-St. Etienne, France) Rosaria Conte (CNR & University of Siena, Italy) Ulisses Cortes (UPC, Spain) Shaheen Fatima (University of Liverpool, UK) ...
I linguaggi di comunicazione per agenti artificiali sono recentemente diventati un punto focale nel campo d'indagine dei sistemi multi-agente, soprattutto in relazione ai cosiddetti sistemi aperti, che necessitano di un supporto di... more
I linguaggi di comunicazione per agenti artificiali sono recentemente diventati un punto focale nel campo d'indagine dei sistemi multi-agente, soprattutto in relazione ai cosiddetti sistemi aperti, che necessitano di un supporto di comunicazione uniforme e condiviso. Anche se non esiste ancora un linguaggio di comunicazione per agenti universalmente accettato, tutte le proposte più significative assumono che la comunicazione tra agenti vada trattata in termini di atti linguistici (Austin 1962, Searle 1969), chiamati" atti comunicativi" ...
Google, Inc. (search). ...
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Abstract. The design and implementation of open interaction systems (OIS) is widely recognized to be a crucial issue in the development of innovative applications on the Internet. In our past works we have pro-posed to specify the... more
Abstract. The design and implementation of open interaction systems (OIS) is widely recognized to be a crucial issue in the development of innovative applications on the Internet. In our past works we have pro-posed to specify the high-level component of an OIS by means of a set of artificial institutions. In this paper we describe the lower layers of a framework of open interaction, to be used as a reference for the devel-opment of an OIS: the connectivity layer, in charge of enabling an agent to send messages to other agents, and the message layer, devoted to the syntactic and semantic processing of the messages. We specify a set of conventions concerning these layers that are essential in open interac-tions: we propose conventions on the message structure, on the applica-tion independent part of the content language, and on the semantics of messages (limiting our attention, in this paper, to commissive messages). Such conventions would guarantee agent interoperability if adopted ...
This paper addresses the problem of proposing a model of norms and a framework for automatically computing their violation or fulfilment. The proposed T-NORM model can be used to express abstract norms able to regulate classes of actions... more
This paper addresses the problem of proposing a model of norms and a framework for automatically computing their violation or fulfilment. The proposed T-NORM model can be used to express abstract norms able to regulate classes of actions that should or should not be performed in a temporal interval. We show how the model can be used to formalize obligations and prohibitions and for inhibiting them by introducing permissions and exemptions. The basic building blocks for norm specification consists of rules with suitably nested components. The activation condition, the regulated actions, and the temporal constrains of norms are specified using the W3C Web Ontology Language (OWL 2). Thanks to this choice, it is possible to use OWL reasoning for computing the effects that the logical implication between actions has on norms fulfilment or violation. The operational semantics of the T-NORM model is specified by providing an unambiguous procedure for translating every norm and every except...
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Abstract The notion of artificial institution is crucial for the specification of open and dynamic interaction frameworks where heterogeneous and autonomous agents can interact to face problems in various fields. In our view the... more
Abstract The notion of artificial institution is crucial for the specification of open and dynamic interaction frameworks where heterogeneous and autonomous agents can interact to face problems in various fields. In our view the specification of artificial institutions requires a clear standard definition of some basic concepts: the notion of ontology, authorizations, conventions, and the normative component. In this paper we propose an event driven approach to the definition of norms that is mainly based on the manipulation of ...
The notion of Multi-Agent System environment is currently considered as a mediating entity, functioning as enabler but possibly also as a manager and constrainer of agent actions, perceptions, and interactions. It is a first-class... more
The notion of Multi-Agent System environment is currently considered as a mediating entity, functioning as enabler but possibly also as a manager and constrainer of agent actions, perceptions, and interactions. It is a first-class abstraction that can be suitably designed to encapsulate some fundamental functionalities and services, supporting coordination and organization, besides agent mobility, communications, security, etc. In this paper, we analyze how environment could be a first class abstraction to support the building, development and management of Agreements in decentralized and open systems between autonomous agents. To this aim we analyze the synergies between environment and the foundational dimensions of agreement technologies such as semantics, norms, organizations, argumentation & negotiation, trust. If some works have already been done on the connections between environment and organizations/norms, the links and interactions of the environment with the other dimensi...
This chapter presents a variety of applications of norms. These applications include governance in sociotechnical systems, data licensing and data collection, understanding software development teams, requirements engineering, assurance,... more
This chapter presents a variety of applications of norms. These applications include governance in sociotechnical systems, data licensing and data collection, understanding software development teams, requirements engineering, assurance, natural resource allocation, wireless grids, autonomous vehicles, serious games, and virtual worlds.
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Abstract.In this paperwe,propose a model of agents’ institutionalrea lityt hatma kes us ablet ode fine the semantics of a set of communicative acts suitable for agent communication. Taking inspiration from Searle’s studies on the... more
Abstract.In this paperwe,propose a model of agents’ institutionalrea lityt hatma kes us ablet ode fine the semantics of a set of communicative acts suitable for agent communication. Taking inspiration from Searle’s studies on the construction of social reality, we introduce our notion of Artificial Institution consisting of: an ontologyof the concepts defined by the institution, a set of authorizations for
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Abstract. We propose an infrastructure for the design and development of Open Interaction Systems (OISs), based on solutions from the areas of Service Oriented Architecture, Semantic Technologies and Normative Multiagent Systems, in... more
Abstract. We propose an infrastructure for the design and development of Open Interaction Systems (OISs), based on solutions from the areas of Service Oriented Architecture, Semantic Technologies and Normative Multiagent Systems, in particular the OCeAN metamodel of Artificial Institution. OISs are open to diverse types of participants (ie, software agents), and enable them to interact with each other to achieve their objectives. To do so the participants are allowed to interact in compliance with previously agreed-upon regulations ...
Abstract. The notion of artificial institution is crucial for the specification of open and dynamic interaction frameworks where heterogeneous and autonomous agents can interact to face problems in various fields. In our view the... more
Abstract. The notion of artificial institution is crucial for the specification of open and dynamic interaction frameworks where heterogeneous and autonomous agents can interact to face problems in various fields. In our view the specifi-cation of artificial institutions requires a clear ...
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The specification of open interaction systems is widely recognized to be a crucial issue, which involves the problem of finding a standard way of specifying: a communication language for the interacting agents, the entities that... more
The specification of open interaction systems is widely recognized to be a crucial issue, which involves the problem of finding a standard way of specifying: a communication language for the interacting agents, the entities that constitute the context of the interaction, and rules that ...
Abstract. We propose a method for the definition of interaction proto-cols to be used in open multiagent systems. Starting from the assumption that language is the fundamental component of every interaction, we first propose a semantics... more
Abstract. We propose a method for the definition of interaction proto-cols to be used in open multiagent systems. Starting from the assumption that language is the fundamental component of every interaction, we first propose a semantics for Agent Communication Languages ...
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In this short contribution we explain how our research has evolved from the publication of the following paper [2] with respect to its relevant aspects. This paper proposes a model of norms whose content is related to time, which are... more
In this short contribution we explain how our research has evolved from the publication of the following paper [2] with respect to its relevant aspects. This paper proposes a model of norms whose content is related to time, which are specified at design time and therefore are expressed in terms of roles played by the agents. Those norms have an activation event that is used to express the template of the events that when happen, provided that certain conditions hold, transform the norm in a social commitment. This dynamic evolution of ...
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This paper investigates a secure mechanism for Electronic Health Records (EHR) exchange over a Peer to Peer (P2P) agent based coordination framework. Our study is based on the SemHealthCoord framework, a platform for the exchange of EHR... more
This paper investigates a secure mechanism for Electronic Health Records (EHR) exchange over a Peer to Peer (P2P) agent based coordination framework. Our study is based on the SemHealthCoord framework, a platform for the exchange of EHR between autonomous health organisations that extends the existing interoperability standards as proposed by the Integrating Healthcare Enterprise (IHE). Every health organisation in SemHealthCoord represents a community within a P2P network. Communities use a set of autonomous agents and a set of distributed coordination rules to coordinate the agents in the search of specific health records. To enable secure interactions among communities, we propose the use of asymmetric keys and digital certificates. We specify the interaction protocols to provide integrity and authenticity between the communities, and, to illustrate the scalability of our approach, we evaluate the proposed solution in distributed settings by comparing the performance between secu...