Whitestein Series in Software Agent Technologies and Autonomic Computing 

Learn more about the Whitestein Series and our call for contributions here. 

Latest volumes

• Advanced Autonomic Networking and Communication [hide details]

  Calisti, M.; van der Meer, S.; Strassner, J. (Eds.) 2008, 204p. This book presents a comprehensive reference of state-of-the-art efforts and early results in the area of autonomic networking and communication. The essence of autonomic networking, and thus autonomic communications, is to enable the self-governing of services and resources within the constraints of business rules. In order to support self-governance, appropriate self-* functionality will be deployed in the network on an application-specific basis. The continuing increase in complexity of upcoming networking convergence scenarios mandates a new approach to network management. This special issue explores different ways that autonomic principles can be applied to existing and future networks. In particular, the book has 3 main parts, each of them represented by three papers discussing them from industrial and academic perspectives. The first part focuses on architectures and modeling strategies. Part two is dedicated to middleware and service infrastructure as facilitators of autonomic communications and the last part addresses autonomic networks, specifically how current networks can be equipped with autonomic functionality and thus migrate to autonomic networks. Purchase from publisher

• Defense Industry Applications of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems [hide details]

  Pechoucek, M.; Thompson, S.G.; Voos, H. (Eds.) 2008, 180p. In all modern military doctrines the mission effectiveness shall be dramatically increased by the robust networking of all forces, sharing of information and distributed intelligent information processing, generating situational awareness and providing decision support. In addition, these principles also offer an effective way to improve security systems that support the fight against terrorists and organized crime. Intelligent Agents are a key technology to realize such modern defence and security systems and are therefore increasingly investigated by researchers and practioners in that field. Papers in this book describe work in the development of command and control systems, military communications systems, information systems, surveillance systems, autonomous vehicles, simulators and HCI. The collection provides an overview of the most significant work being performed by the leading workers in this area. It provides a single reference point for the state of the art in the field at the moment. Purchase from publisher

• Agent Technology and e-Health [hide details]

  Annicchiarico, R.; Cortés, U.; Urdiales, C. (Eds.) 2008, 160p. Multi-agent systems are one of the most exciting research areas in Artificial Intelligence. In the last ten years there has been a growing interest in the application of agent-based systems in health care. Moreover, a growing European community of researchers interested in the application of intelligent agents in health care emerged as a result of the activities within the AgentCities.NET European network and the AgentLink III Technical Forum Group on Healthcare Applications of Intelligent Agents. And specially in R and D projects funded during the FP6. Thus, this book reports on the results achieved in this area, discuss the benefits (and drawbacks) that agent-based systems may bring to medical domains and society, and also to provide a list of the research topics that should be tackled in the near future to make the deployment of health-care agent-based systems a reality. Purchase from publisher

Published volumes

• Issues in Multi-Agent Systems [+]

  The AgentCities.ES Experience Moreno, A.; Pavón, J. (Eds.) 2007, 225p. The agent paradigm has been a subject of research for the last years, and the purpose of this book is to present current status of this technology by looking at its application in different domains, such as electronic markets, e-tourism, ambience intelligence, and complex system analysis. It starts by discussing software engineering issues for the development of multi-agent systems, how much it costs to build a multi-agent system, and which methods and tools are currently available. Next chapters present some of the most relevant aspects that are considered for the development of multi-agent systems: ubiquitous computing, learning and planning, trust and security, electronic institutions and swarm intelligence. Last chapters focus on concrete applications of physical agents and e-tourism applications, to illustrate how to integrate the previously discussed aspects. The book is written by researchers with experience in technology transfer, and therefore it is oriented to practice. Purchase from publisher

• Emerging Web Services Technology [+]

  Pautasso, C., IBM, Zurich, Switzerland; Bussler, C., Cisco Systems, San Jose (CA), USA (Eds.)
  2007, 182p.

  As Web services technology is becoming widely established in enterprise computing applications, Web services research is a very important and still very productive research domain. This book gives a timely report on the leading edge of this area by covering a wide spectrum of active research topics like Model Driven Engineering for SOA, Mobility and Services, Dynamic Web Service Discovery and Composition, Service Management, and Semantic Web. In particular, the book collects selected and revised papers originally presented at the first Workshop on Emerging Web Services Technology (WEWST) held in conjunction with the 4th European Conference on Web Services (ECOWS‘06) last December 2006 in Zurich, Switzerland.

  Purchase from publisher

• The Agent Modeling Language - AML [+]

  A Comprehensive Approach to Modeling Multi-Agent Systems Cervenka, R.; Trencansky, I., both Whitestein Technologies, Bratislava, Slovakia 2007, 355p. Multi-agent systems have been a focus of studies for more than 25 years. Yet, despite substantial effort of an active research community, modeling of multi-agent systems still lacks complete and proper definition, general acceptance, and practical application. Due to the vast potential of these systems to improve the practice in software and to the extent the applications that can feasibly be tackled, this book provides the Agent-Modeling Language (AML), a comprehensive modeling language as an extension of UML 2.0, concentrating on multi-agent systems and applications. Purchase from publisher

• Adaptive Bidding in Single-Sided Auctions under Uncertainty [+]

  An Agent-based Approach in Market Engineering van Dinther, C., Univ. of Karlsruhe, Germany 2007, 238p. In the last years electronic markets, especially online auctions, have become very popular and received more and more attention in both, business (B2B) as well as in public practice (B2C and C2C). Science, however, is still far from having studied all phenomena and effects which can be observed on electronic markets. Apart from theoretic analysis, other approaches are necessary to evaluate and understand market effects. This book shows that and how software agents can be used to simulate bidding behaviour in electronic auctions. The main emphasis of this book is to apply computational economics to market theory. It summarizes the most common and up-to-date agent-based simulation methods and tools and develops the simulation software AMASE. On basis of the introduced methods a model is established to simulate bidding behaviour under uncertainty. Purchase from publisher

• Agent-based Supply Network Event Management [+]

  Zimmermann, R., Univ. of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany 2006, 329 p. "Supply Chain Event Management (SCEM)" is one of the major topics in application-oriented Supply Chain Management. However, many solutions lack conceptual precision and currently available client-server SCEM-systems are ill-suited for complex supply networks in today's business environment. Agent-based proactive information logistics promises to overcome existing deficits by providing event-related information to all participants in the distributed environment. Hence, follow-up costs of disruptive events are significantly reduced for all network participants and performance of a supply network is increased. In this book a thorough analysis of the event management problem domain is the starting point to develop a generic agent-based approach to Supply Network Event Management. The main focus lies on practical issues of event management (e.g. semantic interoperability) and economic benefits to be achieved with agent technology in this state-of-the-art problem domain. Purchase from publisher

• Software Agent-Based Applications, Platforms and Development Kits [+]

  Unland, R., Univ. Essen, Germany; Klusch, M., German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, Saarbrücken, Germany; Calisti, M., Whitestein Technologies, Zürich, Switzerland (Eds.) 2005, 448p. This book introduces major agent platforms, frameworks, systems, tools, and applications. Each system is described by their developers in sufficient detail so that the reader can get a good understanding of the architecture, functionality, and application areas of the system. All systems are running systems. One main focus of the book lies on agent platforms and toolkits. They form the basis for the development of agent-based systems, thus, are a convenient starting point for everybody who wants to apply agent technology. Another focus lies on agent-based applications. These systems prove that agent technology is mature enough to permit the development of sophisticated applications, like electronic marketplaces, environments for computer-supported cooperative work, or transportation systems. Purchase from publisher

• Applications of Agent Technology in Traffic and Transportation [+]

  Klügl, F., Univ. of Würzburg, Germany; Bazzan, A., Instituto de Informática, Porto Alegre, Brazil; Ossowski, S., Univ. Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain (Eds.) 2005, 209 p. Building effective and user-friendly transportation systems is one of the big challenges for engineers in the 21st century. There is an increasing need to understand, model, and govern such systems at both the individual (micro) and the society (macro) level. Still, this raises significant technical problems, as transportation systems may contain thousands of autonomous, "intelligent" entities that need to be simulated and/or controlled. Therefore, traffic and transportation scenarios are extraordinarily appealing for Distributed Artificial Intelligence, and (multi-) agent technology in particular. This book gives an overview of recent advances in agent-based transportation systems. It includes both a state-of-the-art survey and reports on cutting-edge research in the field. Purchase from publisher

• Ontologies for Agents: Theory and Experiences [+]

  Tamma, V., Univ. of Liverpool, UK; Cranefield, S., Univ. of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand; Finin, T.W., Univ. of Maryland, USA; Willmott, S., Univ. Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain (Eds.) 2005, 345 p. The volume aims at providing a comprehensive review of the diverse efforts covering the gap existing between the two main perspectives on the topic of ontologies for multi-agent systems. On the one hand, there is the knowledge modelling perspective; i.e. how ontologies should be modelled and represented in order to be effectively used in agent systems. On the other hand, there is the agent perspective; what kind of capabilities should be exhibited by an agent in order to make use of ontological knowledge and to perform efficient reasoning with it. Theory and experiences are emphasized as the volume collects the most significant papers of the AAMAS 2002 and AAMAS 2003 workshop on ontologies for agent systems, and the EKAW 2002 workshop on ontologies for multi-agent systems. Purchase from publisher

• Constraint Satisfaction Techniques for Agent-Based Reasoning [+]

  Neagu, N., Whitestein Technologies, Zürich, Switzerland 2005, X, 157 p. An important aspect of multi agent systems are agent reasoning techniques for problem solving, either at the level of a single agent or at the level of distributed collaboration amongst multiple agents. Constraint satisfaction problems are significant in the domain of automated reasoning for artificial intelligence. They can be applied to modeling and solving of a wide range of combinatorial applications such as planning, scheduling and resource sharing in a variety of practical domains e.g. transportation, production, supply-chains, network management, and human resource management. In this book we study new techniques for solving constraint satisfaction problems, with a special focus on solution adaptation applied to agent reasoning. Most work in constraint satisfaction has focused on computing a solution to a given problem. In practice, it often occurs that an existing solution needs to be modified to satisfy additional criteria or accommodate changes in the problem. Based on constraint satisfaction problem structures and their symmetries, we develop techniques for adapting solutions in applications and show how these techniques can be used when the agent is situated in dynamic and distributed environments. Purchase from publisher

• Organizational Principles for Multi-Agent Architectures [+]

  van Aart, C., Acklin BV, Waalwijk, The Netherlands 2005, 204 p. The general question addressed in this book "How can human organizational principles be used for multi-agent architectures?" is answered by an exploration of the possibilities to design multi-agent systems as artificial organizations. Key topics of this book: - a framework for multi-agent system design, based on human organizational notions and principles for distributed intelligent systems design - "Coordination mechanisms" in the form of "Problem Solving Methods", which can assist "Managers" and agent engineers in reasoning about coordination - the "Five Capabilities (5C) model" which is a conceptual framework bases on a generalization of typical agent intelligence competences, such as "autonomy", "interaction", "pro-activeness" and "reactiveness" - a multi-agent architecture capable of (semi)automatic reuse of Problem Solving Methods - "ontology-based communication", in which the meaning and intention of message contents in agent communication is specified in "message content ontologies". Purchase from publisher

• The Role of Norms and Electronic Institutions in Multi-Agent Systems [+]

  The HARMONIA Framework Vazquez-Salceda, J., Utrecht University, Netherlands 2004, 272 p. The design of multi-agent systems (MAS) in complex, open environments can benefit from social abstractions in order to cope with problems in coordination, cooperation and trust among agents, problems which are also present in human societies. The agent-mediated electronic institutions is a new and promising field. Work is focused in social concepts such as norms and institutions in order to provide normative frameworks to restrict or guide the behaviour of software agents. However, current approaches are either too theoretical (formal notations for norms) or too practical (agent architectures and agent platforms with norms) to be properly merged and applied. This book presents HARMONIA, a new framework for electronic organizations that defines a multi-level structure, from the most abstract level of the normative system to the final multi-agent implementation. Purchase from publisher

• Applications of Software Agent Technology in the Health Care Domain [+]

  Moreno, Antonio; Nealon, John L. (Eds.) 2003, V, 212 p. This volume contains a collection of papers that provides a unique, novel and up-to-date overview of how software agents technology is being applied in very diverse problems in health care, ranging from community care to management of organ transplants. It also provides an introductory survey that highlights the main issues to be taken into account when deploying agents in the health care area. Purchase from publisher

• An Agent-Based Approach for Coordinated Multi-Provider Service Provisioning [+]

  Calisti, M., Whitestein Technologies, Zürich, Switzerland 2003, 282 p. Communication networks are very complex and interdependent systems requiring complicated management and control operations under strict resource and time constraints. A finite number of network components with limited capacities need to be shared for dynamically allocating a high number of traffic demands. Moreover, coordination of peer provider is required whenever these demands span domains controlled by distinct operators. In this context, traditional human-driven management is becoming increasingly inadequate to cope with the growing heterogeneity of actors, services and technologies populating the current deregulated market. This book proposes a novel approach to improve multi-provider interactions based on the coordination of autonomous and self-motivated software entities acting on behalf of distinct operators. Coordination is achieved by means of distributed constraint satisfaction techniques integrated within economic mechanisms, which enable automated negotiations to take place. This allows software agents to find efficient allocations of service demands spanning several networks without having to reveal strategic or confidential data. In addition, a novel way of addressing resource allocation and pricing in a compact framework is made possible by the use of powerful resource abstraction techniques. Purchase from publisher

• Customer-based IP Service Monitoring with Mobile Software Agents [+]

  Günter, M., University of Bern, Switzerland 2002, 160 p. Presenting mobile software agents for Internet service monitoring, this research monograph discusses newly standardized Internet technologies that allow service providers to offer secured Internet services with quality guarantees. Yet, today the customers of such services have no independent tool to verify (monitor) the service quality. This book shows why mobile software agents are best fit to fill the gap. Key features: - An introduction to standard Internet service enabling and managing technology such as IPSec, DiffServ and SNMP - A generic service monitoring architecture based on mobile agents - An object-oriented implementation of the architecture based on the Java programming language - Several implementations of mobile software agents that can monitor new and emerging Internet services such as virtual private networks (VPN) Purchase from publisher

Upcoming volumes

• Policy-Based Autonomic Computing [+]

  Anthony, R.; Rana, O.F.; Johnston-Watt, D. (Eds.) Due: 2008-02, approx. 250 p. Policy-based computing is one of many techniques used to implement autonomic computer systems. The business function is expressed in terms of workflow or behavioral rules to be performed in response to certain situations, which is decoupled from the implementation mechanism. The mechanisms are fixed at design time, but the actual run-time behavior is decided by the policy. This facilitates contextual awareness as the policy may take account of various environmental inputs from sensors and external software systems. Policy-based mechanisms are also very useful in specifying system behavior –such as when specifying Service Level Agreements, and subsequently monitoring whether these agreements have been adhered to. Readers will find that this book brings together various aspects of using policies in the context of autonomic computing. It contains papers that report novel contributions to policy-based computing within an autonomics context, along with survey articles that highlight research directions in policy languages, tools and frameworks to support the construction and management of autonomic systems. Purchase from publisher

• CASCOM: Intelligent Service Coordination in the Semantic Web [+]

  Helin, H.; Klusch, M.; Schumacher, M. (Eds.) Due: 2008-01, approx. 250 p. This book presents the design, implementation and validation of a value-added supportive infrastructure for Semantic Web based business application services across mobile and fixed networks, applied to an emergency healthcare application. This infrastructure has been realized by the CASCOM European research project. For end users, the CASCOM framework provides seamless access to semantic Web services anytime, anywhere, by using any mobile computing device. For service providers, CASCOM offers an innovative development platform for intelligent and mobile business application services in the Semantic Web. Purchase from publisher