Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Ontology-driven coordination model for multiagent-based mobile workforce brokering systems

  • Published:
Applied Intelligence Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Coordination has been recognized by many researchers as the most important feature of multi-agent systems. Coordination is defined as managing interdependencies amongst activities (Malone and Crowston in ACM Comput. Surv. 26(1):87–119, 1994). The traditional approach of implementing a coordination mechanism is to hard-wire it into a coordination system at design time. However, in dynamic and open environments, many attributes of the system cannot be accurately identified at the design time. Therefore, dynamic coordination, capable of coordinating activities at run-time, has emerged. On the other hand, a successful dynamic coordination model for multi-agent systems requires knowledge sharing as well as common vocabulary. Therefore, an ontological approach is an appropriate way in proposing dynamic coordination models for multi-agent systems. In this paper, an Ontology-Driven Dynamic Coordination Model (O-DC) for Multiagent-Based Mobile Workforce Brokering Systems (MWBS) (Mousavi et al. in Int. J. Comput. Sci. 6:(5):557–565, 2010; Mousavi et al. in Proceedings of 4th IEEE international symposium on information technology, ITSim’10, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 15–17 June 2010, vol. 3, pp. 1416–1421, 2010; Mousavi and Nordin in Proceedings of the IEEE international conference on electrical engineering and informatics, Bandung, Indonesia, 17–19 June 2007, pp. 294–297, 2007) is proposed and formulated. Subsequently, the applicability of O-DC is examined via simulation based on a real-world scenario.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Chiu DKW, Cheung SC, Ho-fung L (2005) A multi-agent infrastructure for mobile workforce management in a service oriented enterprise. In: Proceedings of the 38th Hawaii international conference on system sciences, Hawaii, 3–6 Jan 2005, pp 85–95

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  2. Drake SD, Boggs R, Giusto MSR, Stacy K, Ryan SS (2008) Worldwide mobile worker population 2007–2011 forecast EXCERPT, IDC, IDC, #209883E. http://www.workshifting.com/IDC_MobileWorker_excerpt_0_0.pdf

  3. Van Der Aalst W, Van Hee K (2002) Workflow management: models methods and systems. MIT Press, Cambridge. ISBN:0262011891

    Google Scholar 

  4. Huhns MN (2002) Agents as Web services. IEEE Internet Comput 6(4):93–95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Huhns MN, Stephens L (1999) Multi-agent systems and societies of agents. In: Weiss G (ed) Multi-agent systems: a modern approach to distributed artificial intelligence, 3rd printing. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 79–120. ISBN:0262232030

    Google Scholar 

  6. Rao AS, Georgeff MP (1995) BDI agents from theory to practice. In: Proceedings of the first international conference on multi-agent systems, ICMAS, San Francisco, USA, 12–14 June 1995, pp 312–319

    Google Scholar 

  7. Hadzic M, Wongthongtham P, Dillon T, Chang E (2009) Ontology-based multi-agent systems. Springer, Berlin. ISBN:9783642019036

    Book  Google Scholar 

  8. Weiss G (1999) Multi-agent systems: a modern approach to distributed artificial intelligence, 3rd printing. MIT Press, Cambridge. ISBN:0262232030

    Google Scholar 

  9. Mousavi A, Nordin M, Othman Z (2010) An ontology driven procedural reasoning system-like agent model for multi-agent based mobile workforce brokering systems. Int J Comput Sci 6(5):557–565

    Google Scholar 

  10. Mousavi A, Nordin M, Othman Z (2010) An ontology driven multi-agent based framework for automated resource allocation in mobile workforce management systems. In: Proceedings of 4th IEEE international symposium on information technology, ITSim’10, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 5–17 June 12010, vol 3, pp 1416–1421

    Google Scholar 

  11. Mousavi A, Nordin M (2007) An architectural model for a multi-agent mobile workforce brokerage system based on CBR-BDI agent architecture and active shared-data space coordination model. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international conference on electrical engineering and informatics, Bandung, Indonesia, 17–19 June 2007, pp 294–297

    Google Scholar 

  12. Schumacher M (2001) Objective coordination in multi-agent system engineering: design and implementation. Lecture notes in artificial intelligence, vol 2039. Springer, Berlin. ISBN:3540419829

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  13. Omicini A, Zambonelli F, Klusch M, Toksdorf R (2001) Coordination of Internet agents: models technologies and applications. Springer, Berlin. ISBN:3540416137

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  14. Malone T, Crowston K (1994) The interdisciplinary study of coordination. ACM Comput Surv 26(1):87–119

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Ossowaski S (2008) Coordination and agreement in multi-agent systems. In: Proceedings of the 12th international workshop on cooperative information agents XII. Lecture notes in computer science, vol 5180. Springer, Berlin, pp 16–23

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  16. Lianzhong L, Xiangrong Z, Xu R (2008) multi-agent system coordination architecture and its use in electric power decision support system. In: Proceedings of IEEE international conference on industrial informatics, INDIN 2008 DCC, Daejeong, Korea, 13–16 July 2008, pp 731–736

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  17. Bouslimi I, Hanachi C, Tout H, Ghedira K (2008) A coordination framework for cooperative information gathering. Int J Adv Intell Paradigms 1(1):60–79

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Brazier FMT, Mobach D, Overeinder BJ, Wijngaards NJE (2002) Supporting life cycle coordination in open agent systems. In: Proceedings of the MAS problem spaces workshop at AAMAS, Bologna, Italy, July 2002, pp 1–4

    Google Scholar 

  19. Papadopoulos G, Arbab F (1998) Coordination models and languages. In: The engineering of large systems. Advances in computers, vol 46. Academic Press, New York, pp 329–400. ISBN:0120121468

    Google Scholar 

  20. Gelernter D, Carriero N (1992) Coordination languages and their significance. Commun ACM 35(2):97–107

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Huhns M, Singh M (2005) Research direction for service-oriented multi-agents systems. IEEE Internet Comput November–December 2005:65–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Bouaziz W, Andonoff E (2009) Dynamic execution of coordination protocols in open and distributed multi-agent systems. In: Proceedings of the 3rd KES international symposium on agent and multi-agent systems: technologies and applications. Lecture notes in computer science, vol 5559. Springer, Berlin, pp 609–618

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  23. Excelente-toledo C, Jennings N (2004) The dynamic selection of coordination mechanisms. Auton Agents Multi-Agent Syst 9:55–85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Ferscha A (2003) Coordination in pervasive computing environments. In: Proceedings of the 12th IEEE international workshops on enabling technologies: infrastructure for collaborative enterprises, WETICE’03, Linz, Austria, 9–11 June 2003, pp 3–9

    Google Scholar 

  25. Tamma V, Van Aart C, Moyaux T, Paurobally S, Lithgow-Smith B, Wooldridge M (2005) An ontological framework for dynamic coordination. In: Proceedings of the 4th international semantic web conference, ISWC’05. Lecture notes in computer science, vol 3729. Springer, Berlin, pp 638–652

    Google Scholar 

  26. Moyaux T, Smith BL, Paurobally S, Tamma V, Wooldridge M (2006) Towards service-oriented ontology-based coordination. In: Proceedings of IEEE international conference on web services ICWS’06, Chicago, USA, 18–22 September 2006, pp 265–274

    Google Scholar 

  27. Jin L, Qinmin W, Daoli Z, Yihong H (2009) Multi-stage dynamic coordination model for large-scale crowd’s activities based on multi-agent. In: Proceedings of the WRI world congress on computer science and information engineering, CSIA, Los Angeles, 31 March–02 April 2009, vol 1, pp 487–491

    Google Scholar 

  28. Gang C, Zhonghua Y, Chor PL (2006) Coordinating agents in shop floor environments from a dynamic systems perspective. IEEE Trans Ind Inf 2(4):269–280

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Johansson S, Davidsson P, Carlsson B (2000) Coordination models for dynamic resource allocation. In: Proceedings of the 4th international conference on coordination languages and models, Coordination 2000. Lecture notes in computer science, vol 1906. Springer, Berlin, pp 182–197

    Google Scholar 

  30. Jianmu Y, Chen L (2008) Ontology based coordination in RFID network. In: Proceedings of 4th international conference on wireless communication, networking and mobile computing, Dalian, China, 12–14 October 2008, pp 1–4

    Google Scholar 

  31. Cregan A, Mochol M, Vrandecic D, Bechhofer S (2005 ) Pushing the limits of OWL, rules and Protégé: a simple example. http://dblp.uni-trier.de/db/conf/owled/owled2005.html#CreganMVB05

  32. Vuong XT, Tsuji H (2007) OWL-T: an ontology-based task template language for modeling business processes. In: Proceedings of IEEE 5th international conference on software engineering research, management and applications, Busan, Korea, 20–22 August 2007, pp 101–108

    Google Scholar 

  33. Laclavik M, Babik M, Balogh Z, Hluchy L (2006) AgentOWL: semantic knowledge model and agent architecture. Comput Inform 25(5):419–437

    Google Scholar 

  34. Sycara K, Paolucci M, Soudry J, Srinivasan N (2004) Dynamic discovery and coordination of agent-based semantic web services. IEEE Internet Comput 8(3):66–73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Xin J (2005) Ontology-driven coordination for supply chain system. In: Proceedings of IEEE international conference on natural language processing and knowledge engineering, Beijing, China, 30 October–01 November 2005, pp 331–335

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  36. Bellifemine F, Caire G, Greenwood D (2007) Developing multi-agent systems with JADE. Wiley, New York. ISBN: 9780470057476

    Book  Google Scholar 

  37. Sirin E, Parsia B (2007) SPARQL-DL: SPARQL query for OWL-DL. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International workshop on OWL: experiences and directions, Innsbruck, Austria, 6–7 June 2007, pp 1–19

    Google Scholar 

  38. Horrocks I (2005) OWL: a description logic based ontology language. In: Van Beek P (ed) CP’05. Lecture notes in computer science, vol 3709. Springer, Berlin, pp 5–8

    Google Scholar 

  39. Baader F, Calvanese D, McGuninness DL, Nardi D, Patel-Schnider PF (2003) The description logic handbook: theory, implementation and applications. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN: 9780511066948

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  40. Simperl E, Kurmmencher R, Nixon L (2007) A coordination model for triplespace computing. In: Proceedings of the 9th international conference on coordination models and languages. Lecture notes in computer science, vol 4467. Springer, Berlin, pp 1–18

    Google Scholar 

  41. Motik B, Grau BC, Horrocksa I, Sattler U (2009) Representing ontologies using description logics, description graphs and rules. Artif Intel 173(14):1275–1309

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  42. Horrocks I, Tessaris S (2007) Querying the semantic web: a formal approach. In: Proceedings of the 6th international semantic web conference, Busan, Korea, 11–15 November 2007, pp 177–191

    Google Scholar 

  43. Marshall MI, Alexander C (2005) Planning for the unexpected human resource risk and contingency planning. Online Journal of Purdue Extension EC-736. http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/EC/EC-736.pdf

  44. Marshall MI, Alexander C (2006) Using a contingency plan to combat human resource risk. Online Journal of Purdue Extension. http://www.joe.org/joe/2006april/tt1.php

  45. Marshall MI, Alexander C (2006) The risk matrix: illustrating the importance of risk management strategies. Online Journal of Purdue Extension. http://www.joe.org/joe/2006april/tt1.php

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science, Faculty of Information Science and Technology, University Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, Bangi, Malaysia

    Arash Mousavi, M. Jan Nordin & Zulaiha Ali Othman

Authors
  1. Arash Mousavi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M. Jan Nordin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Zulaiha Ali Othman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Arash Mousavi.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mousavi, A., Nordin, M.J. & Othman, Z.A. Ontology-driven coordination model for multiagent-based mobile workforce brokering systems. Appl Intell 36, 768–787 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10489-011-0294-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10489-011-0294-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation