SPIIRAS

KSCO’07, Waltham, MA, USA; May 1, 2007

Cooperative Self-Organizing Coalitions:Technological Framework

Prof. Alexander V. SmirnovDeputy Director for Research,Head of Computer Aided Integrated Systems LaboratorySt.Petersburg Institute for Informatics and Automation of the Russian Academy ofSciences (SPIIRAS)

39, 14th line, St.Petersburg, 199178, RussiaPhone: +7(812) 328-2073; Fax: +7(812) 328-0685; e-mail: smir@iias.spb.su

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Presentation Outline

DEMO as a Research MotivationIntroductionProposed ApproachTechnological FrameworkApplication OntologyNegotiation ProtocolConclusions and Future Work

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SPIIRASSt.Petersburg Institute for Informatics and Automation (SPIIRAS)

Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS)Founded in 1724The research umbrella organization of the Russian Government363 units (Research Institutes and Centers)112,000 personnel: 55,100 Researchers (10,000 D.Sc., and 26,000 Ph.D.)

St.Petersburg Institute for Informatics and Automation (SPIIRAS)Founded in 1978Only 1 Russian Academy of Science Institute operating in Northwest Russia in Computer Science discipline203 Personnel: 167 Researchers (34 D.Sc., and 56 Ph.D., 37 Ph.D.students)Grants Ph.D and Dr.Sc. (Technical) degrees

URL: http://www.spiiras.nw.ru

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Acknowledgements

CRDF Project #RUM2-1554-ST-05 with US ONR and US AFRL (2005-2006)Due to this project SPIIRAS was the first (and the only one) Russian organization involved into joint research of US ONR and AFRL

Projects funded by grants # 05-01-00151 and # 06-07-89242 of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (2005-2007)Project # 16.2.35 of the research program "Mathematical Modelling and Intelligent Systems“ (2006-2008)Project # 1.9 of the research program “Fundamental Basics of Information Technologies and Computer Systems” of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2006-2008)

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DEMO: Background

Usually disaster relief and evacuation tasks involve a large number of different heterogeneous teams (sometimes multinational), which have to collaborate in order to succeed. Such organization (networked organization) requires intensive information exchange in order to achieve necessary level of the situational awareness, create ad-hoc action plans, have continuously updated information.The quality of decision making depends upon the quality of information at hand.Problems with information (outdated, incomplete, unreliable, etc.) are a major constraint in decision making. User-centric decision support is of high importance.

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DEMO: Approach

Proposed approach was based on

Ontology management to provide for semantic interoperability

Context management to provide for situation awareness

Two types of contexts are consideredabstract context defining the structure of the problem / situation,operational context defining its parameters.The operational context is built based on the abstract context and information obtained from sensors and other sources. It is constantly updated to provide up-to-date information for problem solving.

Profiling to provide for user-centric decision support

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DEMO: Integrated Framework

Ontologylibrary

Request

User

Request problemdefinition

Abstractcontext

Abstractcontext

Captureof decisions

Operationalcontext

Informationsources

Reference

Relevantinformation

sources

Reference

Currentinformation

Values

Problemsolving

Profiling

Relevantknowledge

Ontology managementContext management

Knowledge-basedproblem model

Instantiatedproblem model

Set of problemsolutions

Constraint satisfaction

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SPIIRASDEMO: Application Ontology (Class View for Task Constituent)

Disaster relief

Get point

Brigade availability

Brigade location

Route availability

Hospital selection

Hospital availability

Get Latitude

Get Longitude

Firefighter brigade selection

Quantity of emergency teams and firefighter brigades

part-of

Hospital location

Emergency team selection

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DEMO: Route Availability Task

Get point Weather conditions

Road floodability

Get road

Beginning of road

Ending of road

Get Precipitation

Get Temperature

Get Wind Direction

Route availability

Get Wind Speed

part-of

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SPIIRASDEMO: Domain Constituent of Abstract Context (Taxonomy View)

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DEMO: Accident / Fire Response ManagementScenario

DispatcherInput

- Emergency / Disaster type (accident / fire)- Location- Number of Victims

Collected Information (automatically by DSS)- Road network (GIS)- Weather (weather Web-site)- Medical & Firefighter brigades, their types and locations- Hospitals and their capacities

Calculated Information (automatically by DSS)- Quantity of required firefighter brigades- Available roads

Decision MakerInput

- Decision preferencesCalculated Information (automatically by DSS)

- Shortest routes for brigades (to the emergency and to hospitals)- Evacuation schedule

Operation ParticipantWhether the brigade is available or not

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SPIIRASDemo: Accident / Fire Response Management (Types of Users and Their Interaction)

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DispatcherAccident / FireRegister Request to the Decision Maker

Decision Maker

Submit task

Solutions

Participant 1

Participant 2

Participant n

… Decision Making, Tasks for the Participants

and

or

Decision

Participant Declines the Decision

Participant Accepts the Decision

DSS Core

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DEMO: Prototype Architecture

System Core

Web (HTTP)

User Interface

Dispatcher,Decision Maker

Brigade

Web-service interface (HTTP)

InformationSources

Problem-SolvingServices

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SPIIRASDEMO: Current Situation ( Visualization of Operational Context for Emergency Decision Maker)

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SPIIRASDEMO: Solution Generated by Constraint Solver

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SPIIRASDEMO: Vehicle Driver Assignment (on theScreen of a Mobile Phone)

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SPIIRASIntroduction:Key IT-Enabled Capabilities

Context-sensitive access to information sourcesCRDF Partner project with ONR and ARFL (2005-2006)

Enhanced infrastructure survivability and continuity of societal functions

Providing for semantic interoperability between the participants based on “National Contexts” / cultural specifics (values, behavior, etc.)The proposal for future work

Better engagement of the public by (1) supplying information and (2) making use of information and resources members of the public can supply

Role-based decision making supportCRDF Partner project with ONR and AFRL (2005-2006)

Greater organizational agility for disaster management

Context-driven methodology of operational decision making CRDF Partner project with ONR and AFRL (2005-2006)

Improved decision support and resource tracking and allocation

Ontology-based situation representation modelRecently SPIIRAS has completed task # 1 “Ontology-Driven Information Integration from Heterogeneous Sources for Operational Decision Making Support”as a part of CRDF Partner project with ONR and AFRL (2005-2006).

Better situational awareness and common operating picture

Organization of a decentralized self-organizing network consisting of the operation participantsProposal “Intelligent cooperative self-organizing networks for disaster relief and evacuation operations” for future work

More robust, interoperable, and priority-sensitive communications

Support by SPIIRAS (Russia)Proposed by National Research Council (USA)

(*) Report “Improving Disaster Management: The Role of IT in Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery. Committee on Using Information Technology to Enhance Disaster Management”, USA National Research Council, ISBN: 978-0-309-10396-1, 2007)

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Introduction:Decentralized Self-Organizing Coalitions

Centralized control is not always acceptable:

probable damages in local infrastructuredifferent subordination of participating teamsetc.

Possible failure in the core of a centralized system would cause stopping of the entire operation

Proposed solution: organization of a decentralized self-organizing coalitions consisting of the operation members.

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Introduction: Problems to Be Solved

Interoperability TechnologicalSemantic

Situation understanding by the members via information exchange

Protocols of ad-hoc decision making for self-organization

Other

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Proposed Approach: Lifecycle Phases

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Life cycle phase Needs Services

Community building (once, new members are added on a continuous basis)

Common infrastructureCommon communication standards and protocols

Modelling goals and objectivesIdentification, qualification, registration of membersCommon knowledge representationCommon modeling for community members

Formation (continuous, initiated by the situation, or a task as a part of the situation)

Task definition model (context)Partner selection

Task modellingRules of partner selection

Operation (continuous) Coordination and synchronization

Rules of re-negotiation and solution modification if necessary

Discontinuation (continuous, initiated by members)

Termination of the established agreements

Update of the current solution

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Proposed Approach: Main Ideas

A common shared top-level ontology (application ontology) for terminology unificationEach member has a profile describing his/her capabilities, appropriate ontological modelEach member is assigned an intelligent agent, representing him/herAgents should be defined rules to be followed during negotiationprocessesWeb-service standards are used for interactions between participants and with external sources (e.g., medical databases,transport availability, weather forecasts)

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Technological Framework: Generic Scheme

Agents establish links and exchange information for better situation awarenessAgents negotiate and make agreements for coordination of their activities during the operationAgents may get information from information sources (e.g., local road network can be acquired from a geographical information system - GIS)

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Agent

AgentAgent

Negotiation Protocol

Peer-to-Peer Negotiation

Application Ontology

OWL

Information Sources

Web-Service(WSDL, SOAP)

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SPIIRASTechnological Framework:Agent Architecture

Each agent has its own knowledge stored in the personal knowledge baseThis knowledge is described by a portion of the shared ontology related to the current agent’s tasks and capabilities and called contextAgent’s capabilities, preferences, etc. are stored in its profile that is available for viewing by other agents of the communityProfile facilitates communication performed via the communication module responsible for meeting protocols and standards that are used within the community.

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Personal Knowledge

Base

World

Core / Engine

Communication Module

ProfileContext

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Application Ontology: The Concept

Application Ontology is a common shared top-level ontology for terminology unificationEach member has a fragment of this ontology corresponding to his / her capabilities / responsibilities (the context)The agent’s context is synchronized automatically when necessary (not during the operation)

Research Directions:building a common “heavy” detailed ontology that is to be used by all the community memberspeer-to-peer partner search and negotiation with dynamic update of the members’ knowledge depending on their partners (no common detailed ontology)

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Application Ontology: Top-Level Classes

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MemberRole

Thing

HelpingOperations Role Situation

HelpingActions

HelpingServices

Informing

DisasterEvent

DangerousSituation

Emergency

… … …

Rescuing

associativecompatibility

TransportationService

DualDisaster

ManMadeDisaster

NaturalDisaster

Locus

WeatherResource

…

ReliefOperation …

…

is-a…

…

Accident

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Negotiation Protocol: Specific Requirements

Contribution: the agents have to cooperate with each other to make the best contribution into the overall system's benefit – not into the agents' (members’) own benefitsTask performance: the main goal is to complete the task performance – not to get profit out of itNon-mediated interaction: the agents operate in a decentralized community and in most of the negotiation processes there are no agents managing the negotiation process and making a final decisionCommon terms: since the agents work in the same system they use common terms for communication. This is achieved via usage of the common shared ontologyTrust: since the agents work in the same system they can completely trust each other (the agents do not have to verify information received from other agents)

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Negotiation Protocol: Comparison

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Protocols

Criteria

Voting Bargaining Auctions General Equilibrium

Market Mechanisms

Coalition Games

Contract Nets

Contribution /

Task performance / /

Non-mediated negotiation

/

Common terms

Trust

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Conclusions

Self-organization can resolve problems arising from failures of centralized control due to probable damages in local infrastructure, different subordination of participating teams, etc.The approach is at its early stages and only some of its parts have been developed (technological framework and general architecture)Common shared application ontology is to be used by the agents representing operation membersBased on criteria identified the contract nets and bargaining can be chosen as a basis for development of the negotiation model in the approach

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Future Work:Self-Contextualized Systems (Definition)

Self-contextualisation is defined as the ability of DSS to ensure self-organization of the services to describe, use and adapt their behaviours according to the current situation or context.

A requirement to context in self-contextualised systems is that it should be made available to multiple services, so that they may take advantage of the available resources. A main characteristicof self-contextualised systems is that they exhibit self-knowledge and self-awareness properties.

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SPIIRASFuture Work:Self-Contextualized Systems (Types of Services)

PSS – Problem Solving ServiceLocationScheduleCapacity (average time of execution)Problems can be solvedReferences to other PSS

KSS – Knowledge Source ServiceLocationScheduleCapacity (average time of delivery)Ontology elements can be instantiatedReferences to other KSS

OS – Ontology Management ServicesMS - Monitoring ServiceCS – Context Service

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Service Factory

Future Work:Self-Contextualized Systems (General Scenario)

KSS

KSS

PSS

PSS

Service Directory Facilitator

Neighbor services

Referred services

Discovery of Neighbor servicesSelf-organized Network

Registration and Neighbor DiscoveryIdentification of Problem

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Thank you!

Contact information:

Prof. Alexander Smirnov

E-mail:smir@iias.spb.su

Phone:+7 812 328 8071+7 812 328 2073

Fax:+7 812 328 0685