The Opal architecture for software development is described that supports the use of agent-oriented concepts at multiple levels of abstraction. At the lowest level are micro-agents, streamlined agents that can be used for conventional, system-level programming tasks. More sophisticated agents may be constructed by assembling combinations of micro-agents. The architecture consequently supports the systematic use of agent-based notions throughout the software development process. The paper describes (a) the implementation of micro-agents in Java, (b) how they have been used to fashion the Opal framework for the construction of more complex agents based on the Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA) specifications, and (c) the Opal Conversation Manager that facilitates the capability of agents to conduct complex conversations with other agents.
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Environmental management and emergency response often involves the joint cooperation of a network of distributed problem solvers, each of which may be specialised for a specific task or problem domain. Some of these problem solvers could be human, others could be ‘intelligent’ environmental monitoring and control systems. Environmental software systems are needed not only for the provision of basic environmental information but also to support the coordination of these problem solvers. An agent architecture can support the requirement associated with disparate problem solvers. The various stakeholders in the process are represented by software agents which can collaborate with each other toward achieving a particular goal. The communication between agents can be accomplished by using interaction protocols which are represented by coloured Petri nets (CPN). This paper describes an approach for providing this support by employing a software agent framework for the modelling and execution of environmental process tasks in a networked environment.
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The use of computer software as an aid to rugby, and sports coaching in general, is becoming increasingly utilized. Videoed sport is the most widely used form of raw data for sports analysis, though it is currently not being used to its full potential. Patterns of player movement and position, both for individuals and groupings of players, are important for understanding the complexities of professional team sports, and yet are not being adequately addressed.
This paper outlines a project that aims to support coaching and/or commentary by visualizing and measuring the similarity of video-derived spatiotemporal information, and enabling timely access to relevant video clips. Specifically, methods by which a user of spatially-enabled sports software can visualize spatio-temporal and rugby object information will be discussed. Two issues are examined: (1) powerful spatio-temporal representation techniques for rugby constructs (such as the pitch, players and amalgamations of players: team, scrum, lineout, backline) and (2) user interface design and how it enables rugby object representation alongside the spatio-temporal visualization facility.
Keywords: spatial, temporal, video, representation, object, rugby
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An area where multi-agent systems can be put to effective use is for the case of an open collection of autonomous problem solvers in a dynamically changing environment. One example of such a situation is that of environmental management and emergency response, which can require the joint cooperation of a distributed set of components, each one of which may be specialised for a specific task or problem domain. The various stakeholders in the process can all be represented and interfaced by software agents which collaborate with each other toward achieving a particular goal. For such situations new agents that arrive on the scene must be apprised of the group interaction protocols so that they can cooperate effectively with the existing agents. In this paper we show how this can be done by using coloured Petri net representations for each role in an interaction protocol and passing these nets dynamically to new agents that wish to participate in a group interaction. We argue that multi-agent systems are particularly suited for such dynamically changing environments, but their effectiveness depends on the their ability to use adaptive interaction protocols.
Keywords: multi-agent systems, agent conversations, adaptive systems
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The technology sector of healthcare is entering a new evolutionary phase. The medical community has an obligation to the public to provide the safest, most effective healthcare possible. This is more achievable with the use of computer technology at the point of care, and small, portable devices could fulfil this role. A Modern Physician/PricewaterhouseCoopers 2001 survey on information technology in Physician practices found that 60% of respondents say that physicians in their organisation use PDAs, compare this with 26% in the 2000 technology survey. This trend is expected to continue to the point where these devices will have their position on a physician’s desk next to their stethoscope. Once this electronic evolution occurs, the practice of medicine will change. Doctors will be able to practice medicine with greater ease and safety. In our opinion, the new generation of PDA mobile devices will be the tools to enable a transformation of healthcare to a paperless, wireless world.
This article focuses on uses for PDAs in health care. Healthcare software is categorised into the following groups; reference/text book, calculators, patient management/logbook and personal clinical/study notebook. With a focus on the healthcare audience (the user), which can be registrar, consultant, nurse, student, teacher, patient, medical director and surgical.
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The St John’s Ambulance Service, Southern Region Control Centre (the control centre) is located in Dunedin City and controls 56 ambulances based in 26 regional stations. The Southern Region covers an area of approximately 54,000 square kilometres, which has a usually resident population of 272,541 (Census, 2001). This report focuses on the dispatch and workload profile of the control centre between the 1st January 1997 and the 31st December 2001. During this period the control centre dispatched ambulances on approximately 135,822 occasions to a total of 118,759 incidents (this includes both emergency incidents and patient transfers). Based on an analysis of these incidents several key findings are discussed in this report. These include:
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