Everything is Alive EiA Agent Architecture

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Everything is Alive (EiA) Agent Architecture

• University of Arkansas
• Joseph Robertson and Craig Thompson
• jlr09,cwt_at_uark.edu

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Everything is Alive

• The Internet of Things a vision
• a world where common objects, including
  inanimate and abstract ones, can have individual
  identities, memory, processing capabilities, and
  the ability to communicate and sense, monitor,
  and control their own behaviors
• Untapped potential
• Surrounded by processing power
• Interoperable appliances

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Technology Today
http//www.intercorr.com/roach.htm
Strap-on GPS
Gentex Smart Beam
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The Problem

• Previous work reported at KIMAS-03 on the Small
  Unit Operations (SUO) Communicator Agent System
• Desirable
• XML based communication and scenarios
• Apply run-time role assignments
• Filter and automate tasks
• Publish/Subscribe
• Simulation mode for after-action reporting
• Improvable
• Each agent contains code superset
• Not extensible wrt dynamic capability composition
• Not compatible with standards (WSDL, eclipse, )

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SUO World Agent
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SUO Initializing
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SUO Ability Levels
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SUO Message Views
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What is an Agent?

• Necessary parts to make an agent?
• Sensing, speech, vision, etc.
• Reasoning
• Persistence
• Intelligence
• Mobility
• Middleware approach
• Dynamic composition
• Mobile parts
• Its all good

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Composition Framework

• Eclipse idea
• well-defined XML interfaces
• Metadata
• List run-time requirements
• Define extendable points
• EiAs E2 solution (next session)
• Modular development
• Run-time deployment
• Distributed platforms
• Dynamic service (un) attachment
• Message based communication
• Eclipse and WSDL/SOAP/UDDI compatibility

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E2 Features

• Fast, small, versatile
• Java and XML
• Component Registry (metadata repository)
• Version
• Libraries used
• Other plug-ins used
• Plug-ins
• Late binding
• Local or remote

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Plug-in Library

• Goal reusable, plug-able, capabilities
• Message Transport
• Choice of Email or TCP/IP
• XML version of FIPAs ACL
• Roles
• Ranger
• Sensor
• Robot
• Generic User Interfaces
• XML translated to
• Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT)
• Web forms

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Plug-in Library (cont)

• Natural Language Interface
• User Interface
• Visual cascaded menus
• Auditory 3rd party speech to text
• Predictive Parser
• Engine
• Example language - ARIA Robot API
• Aspects - experimentation
• Operate on communication paths
• Example aspects security rights, logging,
  monitoring

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Plug-in Library (cont)

• Digital Licensing - exploration
• UDDI discovery service
• Contract negotiation
• Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL) limits
  service use
• Micro Payments
• Licensing Agent
• Handles account information and policies
• Verifies account information
• Generates license and receipt

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Plug-in Library (cont)

• Workflow
• Network of structured tasks
• Decide who, when, and for how much

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Related Projects

• COUGAAR Cognitive Agent Architecture
• Multi-year DARPA Project on agent composition
• Asynchronous message-passing via RMI
• Agents start from common core
• Additional abilities modify behavior
• Distributed Blackboard
• UltraLog
• Extending COUGAAR since 2001
• Survivability robustness, security, scalability

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Related Projects

• E-Commerce Automation
• Identify requirements
• Broker products
• Negotiate
• Purchase/payment transactions
• Uses workflows to facilitate agent cooperation

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Future Work

• Operate in unknown environments
• Ontology mediation
• Negotiation protocols
• Extensive plug-in libraries
• Integrate FIPAs conversation control
• Grid Agent commonalities
• Open source release

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Conclusion

• Middleware solution
• Scalable
• Evolvable
• Success depends on successful interface to
  pre-existing systems and standards
• EiA interface
• E2 platform
• Message passing communication
• SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI

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For more information

• KIMAS 05 Papers
• Everything is Alive Agent Architecture
• E2 Agent Plug-in Architecture
• Natural Language Service for Controlling Robots
  and Other Agents
• Licensing Service for Agents
• Digital Rights for Agents
• Evolving Multi-Agent and P2P Networks Using WSDL
  and SOAP
• Web
• http//csce.uark.edu/cwt
• http//eia.sourceforge.net

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Protégé Ontology Tool

• Organize
• Java Extendable
• Model in class/object style

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Micro Licensing Agent
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Light Switch A Bright Idea