A systemic model for making sense of health data is presented, in which networked foresight com... more A systemic model for making sense of health data is presented, in which networked foresight complements intelligent data analytics. Data here serves the goal of a future systems medicine approach by explaining the past and the current, while foresight can serve by explaining the future. Anecdotal evidence from a case study is presented, in which the complex decisions faced by the traditional stakeholder of results—the policymaker—are replaced by the often mundane problems faced by an individual trying to make sense of sensor input and output when self-tracking wellness. The conclusion is that the employment of our systemic model for successful sensemaking integrates not only data with networked foresight, but also unpacks such problems and the user practices associated with their solutions.
The usefulness of agent technology in the domain of power distribution and building automation is... more The usefulness of agent technology in the domain of power distribution and building automation is investigated. A system consisting of a collection of software agents that monitor and control a small office building using the electrical devices present in the building has been developed. Communication between agents and devices is achieved via the existing power lines. The objectives of the application are both energy saving (by controlling lights, heating, ventilation, etc.) and enhancement of customer value (by taking into account the personal desiderata of the people in the building). The agent system has been designed to be easily configured and customised, in order to deal with different building environments. We are currently experimenting with simulations, and preparing for fielded experiments that will commence in Villa Wega (Ronneby, Sweden) where a large part of the required hardware is already in place.
“Team Sweden” is the Swedish national team that entered the Sony legged robot league at the RoboC... more “Team Sweden” is the Swedish national team that entered the Sony legged robot league at the RoboCup ’99 and RoboCup 2000 competitions. We had two main requirements in mind when preparing our entries: The entry should effectively address the specific challenges present in this domain; in particular, it should be able to tolerate errors and imprecision in perception and execution; and it should illustrate our research in autonomous robotics, by incorporating general techniques that can be reused in different robots and environments. While the first requirement could have been met by writing some ad hoc competition software, the second one led us to develop principled solutions that drew upon our current research in robotics, and that pushed it further ahead.
We describe a decentralized system consisting of a collection of software agents that monitor and... more We describe a decentralized system consisting of a collection of software agents that monitor and control an office building. It uses the existing power lines for communication between the agents and the electrical devices of the building, such as sensors and actuators for lights and heating. The objectives are both energy saving and increasing customer satisfaction through value added services. Results of qualitative simulations and quantitative analysis based on thermodynamical modeling of an office building and its staff using four different approaches for controlling the building indicate that significant energy savings can result from using the agent-based approach. The evaluation also shows that customer satisfaction can be increased in most situations. The approach here presented makes it possible to control the trade-off between energy saving and customer satisfaction (and actually increase both, in comparison with current approaches).
The usefulness of agent technology in the domain of power distribution and building automation is... more The usefulness of agent technology in the domain of power distribution and building automation is investigated. A system consisting of a collection of software agents that monitor and control a small office building using the electrical devices present in the building has been developed. Communication between agents and devices is achieved via the existing power lines. The objectives of the application are both energy saving (by controlling lights, heating, ventilation, etc.) and enhancement of customer value (by taking into account the personal desiderata of the people in the building). The agent system has been designed to be easily configured and customised, in order to deal with different building environments. We are currently experimenting with simulations, and preparing for fielded experiments that will commence in Villa Wega (Ronneby, Sweden) where a large part of the required hardware is already in place.
We present an implementation of a suggested solution to a problem of high relevance to multi-agen... more We present an implementation of a suggested solution to a problem of high relevance to multi-agent systems: that of conflicting information distributed over cooperating agents. To this end, we use a theory for the treatment of problems arising as a decision making agent faces a situation involving a choice between a finite set of strategies, having access to a finite set of autonomous agents reporting their opinions. Each of these agents may itself play the part of decision making agent, and the theory is independent of whether there is a specific coordinating agent or not. Any decision making agent is allowed to assign different credibilities to the statements made by the other autonomous agents. The theory admits the representation of vague and numerically imprecise information, and the evaluation results in a set of admissible strategies by using criteria conforming to classical statistical theory. The admissible strategies can be further investigated with respect to strength and also with respect to the range of values consistent with the given domain that makes them admissible.
Saving Energy and Providing Value Added Services in Intelligent Buildings: A MAS Approach
Abstract. In a de-regulated market the distribution utilities will compete with added value for t... more Abstract. In a de-regulated market the distribution utilities will compete with added value for the customer in addition to the delivery of energy. We describe a system consisting of a collection of software agents that monitor and control an office building. It uses the existing power ...
International Journal of Cooperative Information Systems, 1996
We present a theory and a tool for the treatment of problems arising when a decision making agent... more We present a theory and a tool for the treatment of problems arising when a decision making agent faces a situation involving a choice between a finite set of strategies, having access to a finite set of autonomous agents reporting their opinions. Each of these agents may itself be a decision making agent, and the theory is independent of whether there is a specific coordinating agent or not. Any decision making agent is allowed to assign different credibilities to the statements made by the other autonomous agents. The theory admits the representation of vague and numerically imprecise information, and the evaluation results in a set of admissible strategies by using criteria conforming to classical statistical decision theory. The admissible strategies can be further investigated with respect to strength and also with respect to the range of values that makes them admissible.
Decision Making Agents with Relatively Unbounded Rationality
... [12] LOVE EKENBERG & MATS DANIELSON: A Support System for Real-Life Decisions in... more ... [12] LOVE EKENBERG & MATS DANIELSON: A Support System for Real-Life Decisions in Numerically Imprecise Domains, in Proc. of Operations Research '94, Eds. Derigs, Bachem & Drexl, pp.500505, Springer-Verlag. [13] LOVE EKENBERG, MAGNUS BOMAN & MATS ...
Given a query to a locally consistent deductive database in a multidatabase federation in which d... more Given a query to a locally consistent deductive database in a multidatabase federation in which different nodes may cooperate in answering the query, we must take into account the possibility that the cooperating nodes are mutually inconsistent with respect to the queried formula. If we use classical negation, such an inconsistency will manifest itself as the existence of two derivations, one of the queried formula, and one of its negation. We must therefore add a fourth truth value to the three-valued semantics that account for the cases when (i) the queried formula is provable, (ii) its negation is provable, (iii) neither the queried formula, nor its negation are provable.
The risk evaluation process is integrated with procedures for handling vague and numerically impr... more The risk evaluation process is integrated with procedures for handling vague and numerically imprecise probabilities and utilities. A body of empirical evidence has shown that many managers would welcome new ways of highlighting catastrophic consequences, as well as means to evaluating decision situations involving high risks. When events occur frequently and their consequences are not severe, it is relatively simple to calculate the risk exposure of an organization, as well as a reasonable premium when an insurance transaction is made, relying on variations of the principle of maximizing the expected utility. When, on the other hand, the frequency of damages is low, the situation is considerably more difficult, especially if catastrophic events may occur. When the quality of estimates is poor, e.g., when evaluating low-probability/high-consequence risks, the customary use of quantitative rules together with unrealistically precise data could be harmful as well as misleading. We point out some problematic features of evaluations performed using utility theory and criticize the demand for precise data in situations where none is available. As an alternative to traditional models, we suggest a method that allows for interval statements and comparisons, which does not require the use of numerically precise statements of probability, cost, or utility in a general sense. In order to attain a reasonable level of security, and because it has been shown that managers tend to focus on large negative losses, it is argued that a risk constraint should be imposed on the analysis. The strategies are evaluated relative to a set of such constraints considering how risky the strategies are. The shortcomings of utility theory can in part be compensated for by the introduction of risk constraints. 1992] discuss different types of uncertainties, including inexactness (or technical uncertainty), unreliability (or methodological uncertainty), and "border with ignorance" (or epistemological uncertainty). These authors consider ignorance to be endemic to scientific research. Finally, Wynne [1992] addresses uncertainty in the foundations of information and knowledge, as well as in processing information.
We have argued that time geography provides a perspective that helps unify the two paradigms of (... more We have argued that time geography provides a perspective that helps unify the two paradigms of (a) multi-agent systems, as developed within computer science, and (b) microsimulations, as developed within the social sciences. By identifying and defining these two paradigms, and by reasoning about the central concepts of each of them, we have taken a first step in amalgamating them. We have attempted to take a general systems approach in order to avoid myopia and jargon limitations, and hopefully avoid being too narrow in scope (an approach different from, e. g., Gimblett, 2002). Our claim is that developments based on a synthesis of the three paradigms offer a rich potential for substantial advance of systems analysis methodology. It gives a new angle to classical problems like how to achieve consistency with the world outside a defined core system boundary, how to simultaneously represent processes on very different spatial and temporal scales, how to enable agents to concurrently obey internal and external rules, and how to integrate observable and postulated behavior while preserving achievability of endogenous emergence.
Gives a high-level description of a project aimed at investigating the usefulness of the agent me... more Gives a high-level description of a project aimed at investigating the usefulness of the agent metaphor and the notion of multi-agent systems for the design of control systems for intelligent buildings. The use of the agent approach was initially motivated by the close mapping that it offered between the entities of the application domain and the entities of the software. The concurrent non-deterministic nature of the activities inside the building was another factor that led to the development of concurrent autonomous entities. We argue that the suggested multi-agent system architecture can be easily adapted to almost any building. Also, the implementation of the system allows for dynamic re-configuration of the agents, without disrupting the operation of the system. Finally, simulation results indicate that the approach is viable and that considerable energy savings are possible, while at the same time providing added value for the customer. Also, the approach enables a much more fine-grained control of the tradeoff between energy saving and customer satisfaction than current approaches do
The principle of maximising the expected utility has had a large influence on agent-based decisio... more The principle of maximising the expected utility has had a large influence on agent-based decision support. Even though this principle is often useful when evaluating a decision situation, it is not always the most rational decision rule and other candidates are worth considering. A decision making agent may want, for example, to exclude particular strategies which, in some sense, are too risky with respect to certain thresholds. A theory is presented for situations where a decision making agent, human or machine, has to choose between a finite set of strategies having access to a finite set of autonomous agents reporting their opinions on the strategies. The approach considers a decision problem with respect to the contents and the credibilities of the reports, and the main emphasis is on how to perform analyses in decision situations where the available information is vague or numerically imprecise.
A Tool for Handling Uncertain Information in Multi-Agent Systems
We focus on the strategy problem arising as a manager faces situations involving a choice between... more We focus on the strategy problem arising as a manager faces situations involving a choice between a finite set of strategies, having access to a finite set of agents reporting their opinions. The most preferred strategy is determined from the agents' individual opinions and the relative credibility of each agent. The evaluation method used is primarily based on the principle of maximising the expected utility. The evaluation results in a set of admissible strategies. These strategies can be further investigated with respect to their relative strengths and also with respect to the number of values consistent with the given domain that make them admissible.
On markets with receding prices, artificial noise traders may consider alternatives to buy-and-ho... more On markets with receding prices, artificial noise traders may consider alternatives to buy-and-hold. By simulating variations of the Parrondo strategy, using real data from the Swedish stock market, we produce first indications of a buy-low-sell-random Parrondo variation outperforming buy-and-hold. Subject to our assumptions, buy-low-sell-random also outperforms the traditional value and trend investor strategies. We measure the success of the Parrondo variations not only through their performance compared to other kinds of strategies, but also relative to varying levels of perfect information, received through messages within a multi-agent system of artificial traders.
A method for forcing norms onto individual agents in a multi-agent system is presented. The agent... more A method for forcing norms onto individual agents in a multi-agent system is presented. The agents under study are supersoft agents: autonomous artificial agents programmed to represent and evaluate vague and imprecise information. Agents are further assumed to act in accordance with advice obtained from a normative decision module, with which they can communicate. Norms act as global constraints on the evaluations performed in the decision module and hence no action that violates a norm will be suggested to any agent. Further constraints on action may then be added locally. The method strives to characterise real-time decision making in agents, in the presence of risk and uncertainty.
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Papers by Magnus Boman