This paper summarizes our efforts to address some of the technical and social aspects of agent de... more This paper summarizes our efforts to address some of the technical and social aspects of agent design for increased human acceptability. From a technical perspective, we want to be able to ensure the protection of agent state, the viability of agent communities, and the reliability of the resources on which they depend. To accomplish this, we must guarantee insofar as possible that the autonomy of agents can always be bounded by explicit enforceable policy that can be continually adjusted to maximize their effectiveness ...
ABSTRACT Net-Centric Information Management (IM) and sharing in tactical environments promises to... more ABSTRACT Net-Centric Information Management (IM) and sharing in tactical environments promises to revolutionize forward command and control capabilities by providing ubiquitous shared situational awareness to the warfighter. This vision can be realized by leveraging the tactical and Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANET) which provide the underlying communications infrastructure, but, significant technical challenges remain. Enabling information management in these highly dynamic environments will require multiple ...
Though adjustable autonomy is hardly a new topic in agent systems, there has been a general lack ... more Though adjustable autonomy is hardly a new topic in agent systems, there has been a general lack of consensus on terminology and basic concepts. In this paper, we describe the multi-dimensional nature of adjustable autonomy and give examples of how various dimensions might be adjusted in order to enhance performance of human-agent teams. We then introduce Kaa (KAoS adjustable autonomy), which extends our previous work on KAoS policy and domain services to provide a policy-based capability for adjustable autonomy based on this richer notion of adjustable autonomy. The current implementation of Kaa uses a combination of ontologies represented in OWL and influence-diagram-based decision-theoretic algorithms to determine what if any changes should be made in agent autonomy in a given context. We have demonstrated Kaa as part of ONRsponsored research to improve naval de-mining operations through more effective human-robot interaction. A brief comparison among alternate approaches to adjustable autonomy is provided.
Trust is arguably the most crucial aspect of agent acceptability. At its simplest level, it can b... more Trust is arguably the most crucial aspect of agent acceptability. At its simplest level, it can be characterized in terms of judgments that people make concerning three factors: an agent's competence, its benevolence, and the degree to which it can be rapidly and reliably brought into compliance when things go wrong. Adjustable autonomy consists of the ability to dynamically impose and modify constraints that affect the range of actions that the humanagent team can successfully perform, consistently allowing the highest degrees of useful autonomy while maintaining an acceptable level of trust. Many aspects of adjustable autonomy can be addressed through policy. Policies are a means to dynamically regulate the behavior of system components without changing code or requiring the cooperation of the components being governed. By changing policies, a system can be adjusted to accommodate variations in externally imposed constraints and environmental conditions. In this paper we describe some important dimensions relating to autonomy and give examples of how these dimensions might be adjusted in order to enhance performance of human-agent teams. We introduce Kaa (KAoS adjustable autonomy) and provide a brief comparison with two other implementations of adjustable autonomy concepts.
In this paper we discuss some of the ways social order is maintained in animal and human realms, ... more In this paper we discuss some of the ways social order is maintained in animal and human realms, with the goal of enriching our thinking about mechanisms that might be employed in developing similar means of ordering communities of agents. We present examples from our current work in humanagent teamwork, and we speculate about some new directions this kind of research might take. Since communities also need to change over time to cope with changing circumstances, we also speculate on means that regulatory bodies can use to adapt.
Institute for Human & Machine Cognition University of West Florida 40 S. Alcaniz St., Pensaco... more Institute for Human & Machine Cognition University of West Florida 40 S. Alcaniz St., Pensacola, FL 32501 ++1-850-202-4462 {nsuri,jbradshaw,auszok,mbreedy, mcarvalho,pgroth,rjeffers,mjohnson, skulkarni,jlott}@ai.uwf.edu ... BBN Technologies 10 ...
CCGrid 2005. IEEE International Symposium on Cluster Computing and the Grid, 2005., 2005
Complex services in Service-Oriented Architectures such as the Grid typically require to be confi... more Complex services in Service-Oriented Architectures such as the Grid typically require to be configured in multiple ways that cannot be anticipated by service designers; we illustrate this requirement by studying the myGrid registry, a Grid Registry capable of supporting annotations of service descriptions by third-party users. Instead, services have to be conceived so that they can be configured at deployment and run time. We argue that KAOS is a powerful and flexible language that can help define such configurations. Using our registry case study, we examine the requirements that the definition of such complex configurations brings on policy languages and explain how they can be satisfied. Specifically, we use role-value maps to express constraints between property values; we introduce a notion of PolicySet with associated parameters that support constraints within a well defined scope; finally, we define a notion of Context that allows us to refer to property values that were extant in past execution environments. Essentially, these concepts allow us to add constraints to values in policy definitions, to organise policies in coherent and structure blocks, and to refer to the execution history. The paper discusses these concepts and how they are implemented in a binding of the KAOS policy language to the myGrid Registry.
Multiagent Systems, Artificial Societies, and Simulated Organizations, 2004
Services that has been developed to support Web Services-based (i.e., OGSAcompliant) Grid Computi... more Services that has been developed to support Web Services-based (i.e., OGSAcompliant) Grid Computing Architectures. While initially oriented to the dynamic and complex requirements of software agent applications, KAoS services are now being extended to work equally well with both agent and non-agent clients on a variety of more general distributed computing platforms. The OGSA-compliant version of KAoS services allows finegrained policy-based management of registered Grid services as well as opening additional opportunities for the use of agents on the grid.
Safety and efficiency are primary concerns in chemical processing facilities, though the complexi... more Safety and efficiency are primary concerns in chemical processing facilities, though the complexity of many such systems often makes it difficult for operators to detect abnormal conditions before they compromise throughput or become hazardous. In this paper, we report initial results from the application of multi-agent systems to monitor complex chemical processes and flexibly and appropriately notify key plant personnel about off-nominal conditions.
IEEE First Symposium onMulti-Agent Security and Survivability, 2004, 2004
Policies are being increasingly used for controlling the behavior of complex systems (including a... more Policies are being increasingly used for controlling the behavior of complex systems (including agent systems). The use of policies allows administrators to specify agent permissions and obligations without changing source code or requiring the consent or cooperation of the entities being governed. Past approaches to policy representation have been restrictive in many ways. By way of contrast, semantically-rich policy representations can reduce human error, simplify policy analysis, reduce policy conflicts, and facilitate interoperability. However, semantically-rich policies increase the complexity of fielding policy-governed multi-agent systems. This paper discusses some technical challenges to automatically enforce semantically-rich security policies in Java-based multi-agent systems and presents an engineering approach for addressing some of these challenges. We have developed a first implementation that allows to enforce OWL policies represented using the KAoS policy framework into multi-agent systems built on top of the JDK1.4. The proposed solution allows to control the behavior of agents at a high level of abstraction and exploits the security mechanisms provided by the Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS) to enforce OWL policies.
The paper addresses a problem of building a bridge between different CORBA compliant systems. It ... more The paper addresses a problem of building a bridge between different CORBA compliant systems. It presents a framework of the bridge based on the UNO approach whose architecture is easily extendable to more sophisticated in parallelizing level and functionality units. A problem of mapping objects defined in CORBA model is described and a few suggestions to deal with it are presented. As a case study implementation of the bridge for Orbix and DOME is described.
2010 - MILCOM 2010 MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCE, 2010
Timely access to relevant data and information is critical to successful mission execution in net... more Timely access to relevant data and information is critical to successful mission execution in network centric warfare. Often, the data required to support a mission is not always resident within a single system, but is distributed among multiple systems that must be dynamically interconnected to support the data and information needs. While proprietary and stove-piped information systems have slowly given way to standardized information management architectures (such as the Joint Battlespace Infosphere (JBI) architecture developed by the US Air Force Research Laboratory), each independent organization and/or mission is normally associated with a separate instance of a managed information space that operates in an independent manner. This is necessary given the different stakeholders and administrative domains responsible for the information. However, the demands for coordination and cooperation require interoperability and information exchange between these independently operating information spaces. This paper describes a federated approach to interconnecting multiple information spaces to enable data interchange. We propose a set of interfaces to facilitate dynamic, runtime discovery and federation of information spaces. We also integrate with the KAoS policy and domain services framework to realize policybased control over the federation and exchange of information. Our approach allows clients to transparently perform publish, subscribe, and query operations across all the federated information spaces. We have integrated with three existing JBI implementations -Apollo from the Air Force Research Laboratory, Mercury from General Dynamics and AIMS from Northrop Grumman. Most recently, we have integrated with Phoenix, a fully SoA (Service-oriented Architecture) based approach to information management.
2012 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conferences on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology, 2012
In this article, we explain our rationale for the development of Luna, a software agent framework... more In this article, we explain our rationale for the development of Luna, a software agent framework. In particular, we focus on how we use capabilities for comprehensive policy-based governance to ensure that key requirements for security, declarative specification of taskwork, and built-in support for joint activity within mixed teams of humans and agents are satisfied. KAoS, IHMC's ontology-based policy services framework, enables the semantically-rich and extensible semantics and the operational power and flexibility needed to realize these capabilities within Luna. We show how Luna is specifically designed to allow developers and users to leverage different forms of policybased governance in an endless variety of ways.
ABSTRACT . This paper evaluates an overhead introduced by components that build aframework for in... more ABSTRACT . This paper evaluates an overhead introduced by components that build aframework for inter-ORB request level bridge. It shows that TypeCode processing complexityis the most influential factor that determines efficiency of almost each genericbridge. This has been experimentally proved by evaluation of the components of theimplemented half-bridge between Orbix 1.31 and IIOP domain.1 IntroductionExistence of many different ORB domains is justified for performance, security andmanagement...
This paper introduces a version of KAoS Semantic Policy and Domain Services that has been develop... more This paper introduces a version of KAoS Semantic Policy and Domain Services that has been developed to support Web Services-based (i.e., OGSA-compliant) Grid Computing Architectures. While initially oriented to the dynamic and complex requirements of software agent applications, KAoS services are now being extended to work equally well with both agent and non-agent clients on a variety of more general
MILCOM 2012 - 2012 IEEE Military Communications Conference, 2012
ABSTRACT Network-centric warfare is often credited for the superior warfighting capabilities of t... more ABSTRACT Network-centric warfare is often credited for the superior warfighting capabilities of the United States. One of the fundamental requirements for network-centric warfare is the timely exchange of information critical to mission success. The Phoenix Information Management Services (IMS) have been developed to address this all-important requirement. This paper describes a set of federation services that extend the Phoenix IMS to span multiple enclaves or domains of information management. Federation services interconnect multiple instances of Phoenix and support controlled information exchange across enclaves. Federation services, coupled with the core Phoenix information management services, are a force multiplier, allowing information to be shared across not just one, but any number of domains and information spaces. This in turn promotes shared situational awareness, unity of command, and synchronized operations across a variety of missions.
This paper summarizes our efforts to develop capabilities for policy and contract management for ... more This paper summarizes our efforts to develop capabilities for policy and contract management for Semantic Web Services applications. KAoS services and tools allow for the specification, management, analyzes, disclosure and enforcement of policies represented in OWL. We discuss three current Semantic Web Services applications as examples of the kinds of roles that a policy management framework can play: as an authorization service in grid computing environments, as a distributed policy specification and enforcement capability for a semantic matchmaker, and as a verification tool for services composition and contract management.
This paper summarizes our efforts to address some of the technical and social aspects of agent de... more This paper summarizes our efforts to address some of the technical and social aspects of agent design for increased human acceptability. From a technical perspective, we want to be able to ensure the protection of agent state, the viability of agent communities, and the reliability of the resources on which they depend. To accomplish this, we must guarantee insofar as possible that the autonomy of agents can always be bounded by explicit enforceable policy that can be continually adjusted to maximize their effectiveness ...
ABSTRACT Net-Centric Information Management (IM) and sharing in tactical environments promises to... more ABSTRACT Net-Centric Information Management (IM) and sharing in tactical environments promises to revolutionize forward command and control capabilities by providing ubiquitous shared situational awareness to the warfighter. This vision can be realized by leveraging the tactical and Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANET) which provide the underlying communications infrastructure, but, significant technical challenges remain. Enabling information management in these highly dynamic environments will require multiple ...
Though adjustable autonomy is hardly a new topic in agent systems, there has been a general lack ... more Though adjustable autonomy is hardly a new topic in agent systems, there has been a general lack of consensus on terminology and basic concepts. In this paper, we describe the multi-dimensional nature of adjustable autonomy and give examples of how various dimensions might be adjusted in order to enhance performance of human-agent teams. We then introduce Kaa (KAoS adjustable autonomy), which extends our previous work on KAoS policy and domain services to provide a policy-based capability for adjustable autonomy based on this richer notion of adjustable autonomy. The current implementation of Kaa uses a combination of ontologies represented in OWL and influence-diagram-based decision-theoretic algorithms to determine what if any changes should be made in agent autonomy in a given context. We have demonstrated Kaa as part of ONRsponsored research to improve naval de-mining operations through more effective human-robot interaction. A brief comparison among alternate approaches to adjustable autonomy is provided.
Trust is arguably the most crucial aspect of agent acceptability. At its simplest level, it can b... more Trust is arguably the most crucial aspect of agent acceptability. At its simplest level, it can be characterized in terms of judgments that people make concerning three factors: an agent's competence, its benevolence, and the degree to which it can be rapidly and reliably brought into compliance when things go wrong. Adjustable autonomy consists of the ability to dynamically impose and modify constraints that affect the range of actions that the humanagent team can successfully perform, consistently allowing the highest degrees of useful autonomy while maintaining an acceptable level of trust. Many aspects of adjustable autonomy can be addressed through policy. Policies are a means to dynamically regulate the behavior of system components without changing code or requiring the cooperation of the components being governed. By changing policies, a system can be adjusted to accommodate variations in externally imposed constraints and environmental conditions. In this paper we describe some important dimensions relating to autonomy and give examples of how these dimensions might be adjusted in order to enhance performance of human-agent teams. We introduce Kaa (KAoS adjustable autonomy) and provide a brief comparison with two other implementations of adjustable autonomy concepts.
In this paper we discuss some of the ways social order is maintained in animal and human realms, ... more In this paper we discuss some of the ways social order is maintained in animal and human realms, with the goal of enriching our thinking about mechanisms that might be employed in developing similar means of ordering communities of agents. We present examples from our current work in humanagent teamwork, and we speculate about some new directions this kind of research might take. Since communities also need to change over time to cope with changing circumstances, we also speculate on means that regulatory bodies can use to adapt.
Institute for Human & Machine Cognition University of West Florida 40 S. Alcaniz St., Pensaco... more Institute for Human & Machine Cognition University of West Florida 40 S. Alcaniz St., Pensacola, FL 32501 ++1-850-202-4462 {nsuri,jbradshaw,auszok,mbreedy, mcarvalho,pgroth,rjeffers,mjohnson, skulkarni,jlott}@ai.uwf.edu ... BBN Technologies 10 ...
CCGrid 2005. IEEE International Symposium on Cluster Computing and the Grid, 2005., 2005
Complex services in Service-Oriented Architectures such as the Grid typically require to be confi... more Complex services in Service-Oriented Architectures such as the Grid typically require to be configured in multiple ways that cannot be anticipated by service designers; we illustrate this requirement by studying the myGrid registry, a Grid Registry capable of supporting annotations of service descriptions by third-party users. Instead, services have to be conceived so that they can be configured at deployment and run time. We argue that KAOS is a powerful and flexible language that can help define such configurations. Using our registry case study, we examine the requirements that the definition of such complex configurations brings on policy languages and explain how they can be satisfied. Specifically, we use role-value maps to express constraints between property values; we introduce a notion of PolicySet with associated parameters that support constraints within a well defined scope; finally, we define a notion of Context that allows us to refer to property values that were extant in past execution environments. Essentially, these concepts allow us to add constraints to values in policy definitions, to organise policies in coherent and structure blocks, and to refer to the execution history. The paper discusses these concepts and how they are implemented in a binding of the KAOS policy language to the myGrid Registry.
Multiagent Systems, Artificial Societies, and Simulated Organizations, 2004
Services that has been developed to support Web Services-based (i.e., OGSAcompliant) Grid Computi... more Services that has been developed to support Web Services-based (i.e., OGSAcompliant) Grid Computing Architectures. While initially oriented to the dynamic and complex requirements of software agent applications, KAoS services are now being extended to work equally well with both agent and non-agent clients on a variety of more general distributed computing platforms. The OGSA-compliant version of KAoS services allows finegrained policy-based management of registered Grid services as well as opening additional opportunities for the use of agents on the grid.
Safety and efficiency are primary concerns in chemical processing facilities, though the complexi... more Safety and efficiency are primary concerns in chemical processing facilities, though the complexity of many such systems often makes it difficult for operators to detect abnormal conditions before they compromise throughput or become hazardous. In this paper, we report initial results from the application of multi-agent systems to monitor complex chemical processes and flexibly and appropriately notify key plant personnel about off-nominal conditions.
IEEE First Symposium onMulti-Agent Security and Survivability, 2004, 2004
Policies are being increasingly used for controlling the behavior of complex systems (including a... more Policies are being increasingly used for controlling the behavior of complex systems (including agent systems). The use of policies allows administrators to specify agent permissions and obligations without changing source code or requiring the consent or cooperation of the entities being governed. Past approaches to policy representation have been restrictive in many ways. By way of contrast, semantically-rich policy representations can reduce human error, simplify policy analysis, reduce policy conflicts, and facilitate interoperability. However, semantically-rich policies increase the complexity of fielding policy-governed multi-agent systems. This paper discusses some technical challenges to automatically enforce semantically-rich security policies in Java-based multi-agent systems and presents an engineering approach for addressing some of these challenges. We have developed a first implementation that allows to enforce OWL policies represented using the KAoS policy framework into multi-agent systems built on top of the JDK1.4. The proposed solution allows to control the behavior of agents at a high level of abstraction and exploits the security mechanisms provided by the Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS) to enforce OWL policies.
The paper addresses a problem of building a bridge between different CORBA compliant systems. It ... more The paper addresses a problem of building a bridge between different CORBA compliant systems. It presents a framework of the bridge based on the UNO approach whose architecture is easily extendable to more sophisticated in parallelizing level and functionality units. A problem of mapping objects defined in CORBA model is described and a few suggestions to deal with it are presented. As a case study implementation of the bridge for Orbix and DOME is described.
2010 - MILCOM 2010 MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCE, 2010
Timely access to relevant data and information is critical to successful mission execution in net... more Timely access to relevant data and information is critical to successful mission execution in network centric warfare. Often, the data required to support a mission is not always resident within a single system, but is distributed among multiple systems that must be dynamically interconnected to support the data and information needs. While proprietary and stove-piped information systems have slowly given way to standardized information management architectures (such as the Joint Battlespace Infosphere (JBI) architecture developed by the US Air Force Research Laboratory), each independent organization and/or mission is normally associated with a separate instance of a managed information space that operates in an independent manner. This is necessary given the different stakeholders and administrative domains responsible for the information. However, the demands for coordination and cooperation require interoperability and information exchange between these independently operating information spaces. This paper describes a federated approach to interconnecting multiple information spaces to enable data interchange. We propose a set of interfaces to facilitate dynamic, runtime discovery and federation of information spaces. We also integrate with the KAoS policy and domain services framework to realize policybased control over the federation and exchange of information. Our approach allows clients to transparently perform publish, subscribe, and query operations across all the federated information spaces. We have integrated with three existing JBI implementations -Apollo from the Air Force Research Laboratory, Mercury from General Dynamics and AIMS from Northrop Grumman. Most recently, we have integrated with Phoenix, a fully SoA (Service-oriented Architecture) based approach to information management.
2012 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conferences on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology, 2012
In this article, we explain our rationale for the development of Luna, a software agent framework... more In this article, we explain our rationale for the development of Luna, a software agent framework. In particular, we focus on how we use capabilities for comprehensive policy-based governance to ensure that key requirements for security, declarative specification of taskwork, and built-in support for joint activity within mixed teams of humans and agents are satisfied. KAoS, IHMC's ontology-based policy services framework, enables the semantically-rich and extensible semantics and the operational power and flexibility needed to realize these capabilities within Luna. We show how Luna is specifically designed to allow developers and users to leverage different forms of policybased governance in an endless variety of ways.
ABSTRACT . This paper evaluates an overhead introduced by components that build aframework for in... more ABSTRACT . This paper evaluates an overhead introduced by components that build aframework for inter-ORB request level bridge. It shows that TypeCode processing complexityis the most influential factor that determines efficiency of almost each genericbridge. This has been experimentally proved by evaluation of the components of theimplemented half-bridge between Orbix 1.31 and IIOP domain.1 IntroductionExistence of many different ORB domains is justified for performance, security andmanagement...
This paper introduces a version of KAoS Semantic Policy and Domain Services that has been develop... more This paper introduces a version of KAoS Semantic Policy and Domain Services that has been developed to support Web Services-based (i.e., OGSA-compliant) Grid Computing Architectures. While initially oriented to the dynamic and complex requirements of software agent applications, KAoS services are now being extended to work equally well with both agent and non-agent clients on a variety of more general
MILCOM 2012 - 2012 IEEE Military Communications Conference, 2012
ABSTRACT Network-centric warfare is often credited for the superior warfighting capabilities of t... more ABSTRACT Network-centric warfare is often credited for the superior warfighting capabilities of the United States. One of the fundamental requirements for network-centric warfare is the timely exchange of information critical to mission success. The Phoenix Information Management Services (IMS) have been developed to address this all-important requirement. This paper describes a set of federation services that extend the Phoenix IMS to span multiple enclaves or domains of information management. Federation services interconnect multiple instances of Phoenix and support controlled information exchange across enclaves. Federation services, coupled with the core Phoenix information management services, are a force multiplier, allowing information to be shared across not just one, but any number of domains and information spaces. This in turn promotes shared situational awareness, unity of command, and synchronized operations across a variety of missions.
This paper summarizes our efforts to develop capabilities for policy and contract management for ... more This paper summarizes our efforts to develop capabilities for policy and contract management for Semantic Web Services applications. KAoS services and tools allow for the specification, management, analyzes, disclosure and enforcement of policies represented in OWL. We discuss three current Semantic Web Services applications as examples of the kinds of roles that a policy management framework can play: as an authorization service in grid computing environments, as a distributed policy specification and enforcement capability for a semantic matchmaker, and as a verification tool for services composition and contract management.
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Papers by Andrzej Uszok