Ontology Exchange and Integration via Product-Brokering Agents

Author(s):  
Sheng-Uei Guan ◽  
Fangming Zhu

Agent-based e-commerce has been booming with the development of the Internet and agent technologies. However, little effort has been devoted to exploring the learning and evolving capabilities of software agents. This chapter addresses the issues of evolving software agents in e-commerce applications. An agent structure with evolutionary features is proposed with a focus on internal hierarchical knowledge. We argue that the knowledge base of an intelligent agent should be the cornerstone for its evolution capabilities, and the agent can enhance its knowledge base by exchanging knowledge with other agents. In this chapter, product ontology is chosen as an instance of knowledge base. We propose a new approach to facilitate ontology exchange among e-commerce agents. The ontology exchange model and its formalities are elaborated. Product-brokering agents have been designed and implemented, which accomplish the ontology exchange process from request to integration.

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 82-90
Author(s):  
A. Mikryukov ◽  
V. M. Trembach ◽  
A. V. Danilov

Purpose of research. The aim of the research is to form modules of organizational and technical systems (OTS) using a cognitive approach to solve problems of adaptation of cyberphysical systems. Currently, there is a rapid development of elements of the Internet of things. New tasks related to self-organization and adaptation in a rapidly changing external environment are brought to the fore. These tasks occur when new elements appear in the telecommunications computer network, they fail, change the mode, new tasks occur, etc. To work out these tasks, the possibilities of approaches to support and decision-making such as situational, cognitive, and semiotic are considered. The authors consider the cognitive approach in more detail. Within the framework of the cognitive paradigm, the article describes the use of the cognitive approach for solving problems of adaptation of cyberphysical systems. To solve this problem on the basis of an agent-based approach, the structure of a cyberphysical system with the possibility of adaptation is presented and the functions of its agents are described. The main stages of solving problems of adaptation of cyberphysical systems are presented. An adaptation algorithm using the planning mechanism is presented. The demo example shows a knowledge base for solving the problem of adapting cyberphysical systems using a cognitive planning mechanism.Materials and methods of research. New approaches and methods are required to address adaptation issues in planning. The cognitive approach is one of the developing directions in solving many problems of the Internet of things. One of these tasks is the ability to adapt OTS modules in a rapidly changing external environment based on the planning mechanism. To solve the planning problem, we use the algorithm described by Aristotle more than 2,350 years ago and implemented in the GPS program. This algorithm can be considered the first description of the cognitive mechanism that a person uses. The knowledge base uses an integrated approach to knowledge representation. When developing OTS modules, an agent-based approach was used to solve the problem of adaptation.Results. The existing and developing approaches and methods for decision support and decision-making are considered for decisionmaking in newly emerging situations in OTS modules. The main provisions of such significant approaches as situational, cognitive and semiotic are presented. A cognitive approach to the adaptation of intelligent systems is proposed. The solution of the problem of adaptation of cyberphysical systems is considered within the framework of the cognitive paradigm. The structure of a cyberphysical system capable of solving adaptation problems is shown. The functions of OTS modules based on agent-oriented technology are described. A description of the adaptation algorithm using the cognitive planning mechanism is given. The main stages of solving problems of adaptation of cyberphysical systems are presented. A demo example of solving the problem of adaptation by a cyberphysical system-a cooking robot – is shown.Conclusion. Using the modular architecture of an intelligent system allows you to solve many problems. One of these tasks is to configure elements of the Internet of things when they deviate from their main function. The planning mechanisms proposed for parametric adaptation can be repeatedly applied in OTS modules as separate agents. This approach is relevant for elements of the Internet of things. In the case of expanding the functionality of the OTS modules of Internet of things, it is advisable to apply machine learning with fixing the results in the knowledge base of planning agents.


2002 ◽  
pp. 98-108
Author(s):  
Rahul Singh ◽  
Mark A. Gill

Intelligent agents and multi-agent technologies are an emerging technology in computing and communications that hold much promise for a wide variety of applications in Information Technology. Agent-based systems range from the simple, single agent system performing tasks such as email filtering, to a very complex, distributed system of multiple agents each involved in individual and system wide goal-oriented activity. With the tremendous growth in the Internet and Internet-based computing and the explosion of commercial activity on the Internet in recent years, intelligent agent-based systems are being applied in a wide variety of electronic commerce applications. In order to be able to act autonomously in a market environment, agents must be able to establish and maintain trust relationships. Without trust, commerce will not take place. This research extends previous work in intelligent agents to include a mechanism for handling the trust relationship and shows how agents can be fully used as intermediaries in commerce.


Author(s):  
Maria João Viamonte

With the increasing importance of e-commerce across the Internet, the need for software agents to support both customers and suppliers in buying and selling goods/services is growing rapidly. It is becoming increasingly evident that in a few years the Internet will host a large number of interacting software agents. Most of them will be economically motivated, and will negotiate a variety of goods and services. It is therefore important to consider the economic incentives and behaviours of e-commerce software agents, and to use all available means to anticipate their collective interactions. Even more fundamental than these issues, however, is the very nature of the various actors that are involved in e-commerce transactions. This leads to different conceptualizations of the needs and capabilities, giving rise to semantic incompatibilities between them. Ontologies have an important role in Multi-Agent Systems communication and provide a vocabulary to be used in the communication between agents. It is hard to find two agents using precisely the same vocabulary. They usually have a heterogeneous private vocabulary defined in their own private ontology. In order to provide help in the conversation among different agents, we are proposing what we call ontology-services to facilitate agents’ interoperability. More specifically, we propose an ontology-based information integration approach, exploiting the ontology mapping paradigm, by aligning consumer needs and the market capacities, in a semi-automatic mode. We propose a new approach for the combination of the use of agent-based electronic markets based on Semantic Web technology, improved by the application and exploitation of the information and trust relationships captured by the social networks.


2009 ◽  
pp. 712-728
Author(s):  
Zhiyong Weng ◽  
Thomas Tran

This article proposes a mobile intelligent agentbased e-business architecture that allows buyers and sellers to perform business at remote locations. An e-business participant can generate a mobile, intelligent agent via some mobile devices (such as a personal digital assistant or mobile phone) and dispatch the agent to the Internet to do business on his/her behalf. This proposed architecture promises a number of benefits: First, it provides great convenience for traders as business can be conducted anytime and anywhere. Second, since the task of finding and negotiating with appropriate traders is handled by a mobile, intelligent agent, the user is freed from this time-consuming task. Third, this architecture addresses the problem of limited and expensive connection time for mobile devices: A trader can disconnect a mobile device from its server after generating and launching a mobile intelligent agent. Later on, the trader can reconnect and call back the agent for results, therefore minimizing the connection time. Finally, by complying with the standardization body FIPA, this flexible architecture increases the interoperability between agent systems and provides high scalability design for swiftly moving across the network.


Author(s):  
Sheng-Uei Guan

With the increasing usage of the Internet, electronic commerce (e-commerce) has been catching on fast in a lot of business areas. As e-commerce booms, there comes a demand for a better system to manage and carry out transactions. This leads to the development of agent-based e-commerce. In this new approach, agents are employed on behalf of users to carry out various e-commerce activities. Although the tradeoff of employing mobile agents is still under debate (Milojicic, 1999), using mobile agents in e-commerce attracts much research effort, as it may improve the potential of their applications in e-commerce (Guan & Yang, 1999, 2004). One advantage of using agents is that communication cost can be reduced. Agents traveling and transferring only necessary information saves network bandwidth and reduces the chances of network congestion. Also, users can schedule their agents to travel asynchronously to the destinations and collect information or execute other applications, while they can disconnect from the network (Wong, Paciorek, & Moore, 1999). Although agent-based technology offers such advantages, the major factor holding people back from employing agents is still the security issues involved. On one hand, hosts cannot trust incoming agents belonging to unknown owners, because malicious agents may launch attacks on the hosts and other agents. On the other hand, agents may also have concerns on the reliability of hosts and will be reluctant to expose their secrets to distrustful hosts. To build bilateral trust in an e-commerce environment, the authorization and authentication schemes for mobile agents should be designed well. Authentication checks the credentials of an agent before processing an agent’s requests. If the agent is found to be suspicious, the host may decide to deny its service requests. Authorization refers to the permissions granted for the agent to access whichever resources it requested.


Author(s):  
Mihhail Matskin ◽  
Amund Tveit

This chapter considers an application of software agents to mobile commerce services provision. With the increasing number of e-commerce services for mobile devices, there are challenges in making these services more personalized and in taking into account the severely constrained bandwidth and restricted user interface these devices currently provide. In this chapter we present an agent-based platform for support of mobile commerce using wireless devices. Agents represent mobile device customers in the network by implementing highly personalized customer profiles. The platform allows customization and adaptation of mobile commerce services as well as pro-active processing and notification of important events. Information to the customers is delivered via both an access to the Internet and SMS messages. Usage of the platform is illustrated by examples of valued customer membership services and subscription services support. We hope that the presented work demonstrates benefits of software agents as assistants in mobile commerce services.


Author(s):  
Sheng-Uei Guan

With the increasing worldwide usage of the Internet, electronic commerce (e-commerce) has been catching on fast in a lot of businesses. As e-commerce booms, there comes a demand for a better system to manage and carry out transactions. This has led to the development of agent-based e-commerce. In this new approach, agents are employed on behalf of users to carry out various e-commerce activities.


Author(s):  
Zhiyong Weng ◽  
Thomas Tran

This paper proposes a mobile, intelligent agent-based e-business architecture that allows buyers and sellers to perform business at remote locations. An e-business participant can generate a mobile, intelligent agent via some mobile devices (such as a personal digital assistant or mobile phone) and dispatch the agent to the Internet to do business on her behalf. This proposed architecture promises a number of benefits: First, it provides great convenience for traders as business can be conducted anytime and anywhere. Secondly, since the task of finding and negotiating with appropriate traders is handled by a mobile, intelligent agent, the user is freed from this time-consuming task. Thirdly, this architecture addresses the problem of limited and expensive connection time for mobile devices: A trader can disconnect her mobile device from its server after generating and launching a mobile, intelligent agent. Later on, she can reconnect and call back the agent for results, therefore minimizing the connection time. Finally, by complying with the standardization body FIPA, this flexible architecture increases the interoperability between agent systems and provides high scalability design for swiftly moving across the network.


Author(s):  
Sheng-Uei Guan

With the increasing worldwide usage of the Internet, electronic commerce (e-commerce) has been catching on fast in a lot of businesses. As e-commerce booms, there comes a demand for a better system to manage and carry out transactions. This has led to the development of agent-based e-commerce. In this new approach, agents are employed on behalf of users to carry out various e-commerce activities. Although the tradeoff of employing mobile agents is still a contentious topic (Milojicic, 1999), using mobile agents in e-commerce attracts much research effort, as it may improve the potential of their applications in e-commerce. One advantage of using agents is that communication cost can be reduced. Agents traveling and transferring only the necessary information save the bandwidth and reduce the chances of network clogging. Also, users can let their agents travel asynchronously to their destinations and collect information or execute other applications while they can disconnect from the network (Wong, 1999). Although agent-based technology offers such advantages, the major factor that is holding people back from employing agents is still the security issues involved. On the one hand, hosts cannot trust incoming agents belonging to unknown owners, because malicious agents may launch attacks on the hosts and other agents. On the other hand, agents may also have concerns on the reliability of hosts and will be reluctant to expose their secrets to distrustful hosts. To build bilateral trust in an e-commerce environment, the authorization and authentication schemes for mobile agents should be well designed. Authentication checks the credentials of an agent before processing the agent’s requests. If the agent is found to be suspicious, the host may decide to deny its service requests. Authorization refers to the permissions granted for the agent to access whichever resource it requested. In our previous work, we have proposed a SAFER (Secure Agent Fabrication, Evolution & Roaming) architecture (Zhu, 2000), which aims to construct an open, dynamic and evolutionary agent system for e-commerce. We have already elaborated agent fabrication, evolution, and roaming in Guan (1999, 2001, 2002), Wang (2001), and Zhu (2001). This article gives an overview of the authentication and authorization issues on the basis of the SAFER architecture.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document