Results 1 - 10
of
28
OWL-POLAR: Semantic Policies for Agent Reasoning ⋆
"... Abstract. Policies are declarations of constraints on the behaviour of components within distributed systems, and are often used to capture norms within agent-based systems. A few machine-processable representations for policies have been proposed, but they tend to be either limited in the types of ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 9 (2 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
Abstract. Policies are declarations of constraints on the behaviour of components within distributed systems, and are often used to capture norms within agent-based systems. A few machine-processable representations for policies have been proposed, but they tend to be either limited in the types of policies that can be expressed or limited by the complexity of associated reasoning mechanisms. In this paper, we argue for a language that sufficiently expresses the types of policies essential in practical systems, and which enables both policy-governed decisionmaking and policy analysis within the bounds of decidability. We then propose an OWL-based representation of policies that meets these criteria using and a reasoning mechanism that uses a novel combination of ontology consistency checking and query answering. In this way, agent-based systems can be developed that operate flexibly and effectively in policy-constrainted environments. 1
Trust Assessment and Decision-Making in Dynamic Multi-Agent Systems
, 2011
"... work contained in this document has been submitted in support of an application for a degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institution of learning. All verbatim extracts have been distinguished by quotation marks, and all sources of information have been specifically ackn ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 3 (0 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
work contained in this document has been submitted in support of an application for a degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institution of learning. All verbatim extracts have been distinguished by quotation marks, and all sources of information have been specifically acknowledged. Signed: The concept of trust in multi-agent systems (MASs) has received significant attention in recent years, and a number of approaches have been proposed to enable agents to form, maintain and use trust relationships in their dealings with others. However, current approaches do not adequately address highly dynamic multi-agent systems, where the population and structure changes frequently. For example, agents may frequently join and leave, and ad-hoc structures may form in response to emerging situations. In these highly unstable environments, trust can be difficult or impossible to build with existing techniques. Trust matters most when risk is involved, but in situations of extreme uncertainty, the risk may be too great to permit any interactions, resulting in a breakdown of the system.
Detecting conflicts in legal systems
- In Proceedings of the Sixth International Workshop on Juris-informatics (JURISIN
, 2012
"... Abstract. When acting in different jurisdictions (e.g. under the laws of different countries) at the same time, it can be of great value for individuals to be able to determine whether disparities among the laws of these different systems exist and allowing them to identify the consequences that may ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 2 (1 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
Abstract. When acting in different jurisdictions (e.g. under the laws of different countries) at the same time, it can be of great value for individuals to be able to determine whether disparities among the laws of these different systems exist and allowing them to identify the consequences that may follow from these dispari-ties. For individuals, it is typically not of interest to find all the ways in which these legal systems differ, but rather to establish whether a particular course of action may have different legal interpretations, depending on the jurisdiction. In this paper we present a formal and computational framework that, given specific scenarios (descriptions of courses of action), can automatically detect whether these scenarios could lead to different outcomes. We demonstrate our approach by means of a private international law case-study where a company drafts a con-tract clause after examining the consequences in the available jurisdictions. 1
A Model-based Approach to the Automatic Revision of Secondary Legislation
"... Conflicts between laws can readily arise in situations governed by different laws, a case in point being when the context of an inferior law (or set of regulations) is altered through revision of a superior law. Being able to detect these conflicts automatically and resolve them, for example by prop ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 2 (1 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
Conflicts between laws can readily arise in situations governed by different laws, a case in point being when the context of an inferior law (or set of regulations) is altered through revision of a superior law. Being able to detect these conflicts automatically and resolve them, for example by proposing revisions to one of the modelled laws or policies, would be highly beneficial for legislators, legal de-partments of organizations or anybody having to incorporate legal requirements into their own procedures. In this paper we present a model based approach for detecting and finding legal conflicts through a combination of a formal model of legal specifications and a computational model based on answer set programming and in-ductive logic programming. Given specific scenarios (descriptions of courses of action), our model-based approach can automatical-ly detect whether these scenarios could lead to contradictory out-comes in the different legal specifications. Using these conflicts as use cases, we apply inductive logic programming (ILP) to learn re-visions to the legal component that is the source of the conflict. We illustrate our approach using a case-study where a university has to change its studentship programme after the government brings in new immigration regulations. 1.
Policy-Carrying Data: A Step Towards Transparent Data Sharing
"... The emerging research and application domains of the Internet-of-Things and Big Data, together with socio-technical phenomena such as social networking, as well as mobile phones (equipped with sensors, GPS, etc.) make us – companies, research centres, people in general – all (sometimes unwittingly, ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 1 (0 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
The emerging research and application domains of the Internet-of-Things and Big Data, together with socio-technical phenomena such as social networking, as well as mobile phones (equipped with sensors, GPS, etc.) make us – companies, research centres, people in general – all (sometimes unwittingly, possibly unwillingly) producers and consumers of data. A sensitive issue for data providers concerns control over access, sharing, dissemination and use of data. By control, we mean placing limitations on who can access the data, when data can be accessed, how data can be accessed, and so on. We propose means to capture the expression of controls over data and to associate that indivisibly with the data via what we call “policy-carrying data ” (PCD). The PCD establishes permissions for what the consumer may do to the data, but also – in a novel addition for such policies – establish what the consumer can/must do subsequently with the data. We formalise PCD and illustrate how it can meet potential stakeholder requirements.
Jam Session – Knowledge-based Interaction Protocols for Intelligent Interactive Environments
, 2010
"... In the present article we characterise a class of problems, based on the solutions that can be brought to them. This class of problems are those that can be solved by systems based on Intelligent Interactive Environments. We first introduce the notion of Intelligent Interactive Environments, then we ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 1 (0 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
In the present article we characterise a class of problems, based on the solutions that can be brought to them. This class of problems are those that can be solved by systems based on Intelligent Interactive Environments. We first introduce the notion of Intelligent Interactive Environments, then we introduce the Jam Session language, which is a compact and simple to use conceptual tool to build systems based on the notion of Intelligent Interactive Environments. Finally, we convey our view that such solutions can be particularly effective for those systems which shall address the needs of a wide spectrum of diverse users – as occurs, for example, in the case of Electronic Government systems. In order to convey more clearly this view, we present a small prototype of a system to address an issue related to cross-borders Electronic Government, namely, the issuing of visas to enter a country for specific purposes. 1
Knowledge-based Interaction Protocols for Intelligent Interactive Environments
"... Intelligent Interactive Environments (IIE) are systems whose main features are intelligence, interactivity and location. Intelligence refers to the ability to solve problems in autonomous fashion, interactivity refers to the behaviour and internal states of the system being influenced by – as well a ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 1 (0 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
Intelligent Interactive Environments (IIE) are systems whose main features are intelligence, interactivity and location. Intelligence refers to the ability to solve problems in autonomous fashion, interactivity refers to the behaviour and internal states of the system being influenced by – as well as influential on – actions, intentions and goals of users, and location refers to different behaviour occuring by changing locations (aka environments), ceteris paribus. IIE are implemented in a variety of platforms, such as distributed sensors, actuators and processors for Ambient Intelligence, distributed and mobile reasoning entities in Virtual Worlds and Augmented Reality, and distributed, multiuser information systems such as Social Networks and service-oriented systems directed to the dissemination of public services and retailing. In the present article we introduce JamSession, a language to specify and execute workflow choreographies, specially useful for the specification and implementation of the coordination of real-time, multimodal and multimedia activities. JamSession functioning is based on the construction of Knowledge-based Interaction Protocols (KBIP), which are formally grounded and can be formally analysed and verified. KBIP are designed using a straightforward and user-friendly graphical language, and JamSession can be implemented using low computational resources. As a result, we strongly expect JamSession to be an ideal tool for the development of novel
Using constraints for Norm-aware BDI Agents
"... Abstract—Systems of autonomous and self-interested agents interacting to achieve individual and collective goals may exhibit undesirable or unexpected properties if left unconstrained. Using deontic concepts of obligations, permissions and prohibitions to describe, what must, may and should not be d ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 1 (0 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
Abstract—Systems of autonomous and self-interested agents interacting to achieve individual and collective goals may exhibit undesirable or unexpected properties if left unconstrained. Using deontic concepts of obligations, permissions and prohibitions to describe, what must, may and should not be done, norms have been widely proposed as a means of defining and enforcing societal constraints. Recent efforts to provide norm-enabled agent architectures that limit plan choices suffer from interfering with an agent’s reasoning process, and thus limit autonomy more than is required by the norms alone. In response, in this paper we describe nu-BDI, an extension of the BDI architecture, which enables normative reasoning, providing agents with a means to choose and customise plans (and their constituent actions), so as to ensure compliance with norms. We make three significant contributions, in providing: fine-grained tailoring of plan restric-tions; a plan annotation mechanism to identify violating plans, and limit possible plan instantiations; and a technique allowing the selective and incremental violation of norms in cases where goal achievement would not otherwise be possible. I.
On minimal change in evolving multi-context systems (preliminary report
- in ReactKnow 2014
, 2014
"... Abstract. Managed Multi-Context Systems (mMCSs) provide a general framework for integrating knowledge represented in hetero-geneous KR formalisms. However, mMCSs are essentially static as they were not designed to run in a dynamic scenario. Some recent approaches, among them evolving Multi-Context S ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 1 (1 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
Abstract. Managed Multi-Context Systems (mMCSs) provide a general framework for integrating knowledge represented in hetero-geneous KR formalisms. However, mMCSs are essentially static as they were not designed to run in a dynamic scenario. Some recent approaches, among them evolving Multi-Context Systems (eMCSs), extend mMCSs by allowing not only the ability to integrate knowl-edge represented in heterogeneous KR formalisms, but at the same time to both react to, and reason in the presence of commonly tempo-rary dynamic observations, and evolve by incorporating new knowl-edge. The notion of minimal change is a central notion in dynamic scenarios, specially in those that admit several possible alternative evolutions. Since eMCSs combine heterogeneous KR formalisms, each of which may require different notions of minimal change, the study of minimal change in eMCSs is an interesting and highly non-trivial problem. In this paper, we study the notion of minimal change in eMCSs, and discuss some alternative minimal change criteria. 1
Noname manuscript No. (will be inserted by the editor) A Coherence Maximisation Process For Solving Normative Inconsistencies
"... the date of receipt and acceptance should be inserted later Abstract Norms can be used in multi-agent systems for defining patterns of behaviour in terms of permissions, prohibitions and obligations that are addressed to agents playing a specific role. Agents may play different roles during their ex ..."
Abstract
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
the date of receipt and acceptance should be inserted later Abstract Norms can be used in multi-agent systems for defining patterns of behaviour in terms of permissions, prohibitions and obligations that are addressed to agents playing a specific role. Agents may play different roles during their execution and they may even play different roles simultaneously. As a consequence, agents may be affected by inconsistent norms; e.g., an agent may be simultaneously obliged and forbidden to reach a given state of affairs. Dealing with this type of inconsistency is one of the main challenges of nor-mative reasoning. Existing approaches tackle this problem by using a static and predefined order that determines which norm should prevail in the case where two norms are inconsis-tent. One main drawback of these proposals is that they allow only pairwise comparison of norms; it is not clear how agents may use the predefined order to select a subset of norms to abide by from a set of norms containing multiple inconsistencies. Furthermore, in dynamic and non-deterministic environments it can be difficult or even impossible to specify an order that resolves inconsistencies satisfactorily in all potential situations. In response to these two problems, we propose a mechanism with which an agent can dynamically compute a prefer-ence order over subsets of its competing norms by considering the coherence of its cognitive and normative elements. Our approach allows flexible resolution of normative inconsisten-cies, tailored to the current circumstances of the agent. Moreover, our solution can be used to determine norm prevalence among a set of norms containing multiple inconsistencies.
