以智慧型代理人為基礎的知識庫整合之研究

Abstract

網際網路的盛行以及儲存設備的價格下降使得以往缺乏資訊來輔助決策制訂的現象不復存在。取而代之的問題則是如何擷取、整合、分析、散佈儲存於不同平台的資訊。本論文提出了一個利用多重代理人系統、本體論以及網路服務所組合而成的架構來整合、利用網路上存在的資料來源以及軟體服務。本體論在本論文中所扮演的角色有兩個，一是當作智慧型代理人相互溝通的基礎，二是用以進一步描述網路服務的功能以及特性。藉由這種特性，代表使用者的智慧型代理人可以在多重代理人系統的環境中動態的、及時的找尋、啟動符合使用者目的的網路服務，並且加以組合、應用。本論文以兩個例子來說明所提出架構，第一個例子是描述所提出的架構如何協助天文學家找尋、擷取、處理極光的資料，以求讓天文學家可以省下處理資料的時間而專心在資訊的分析。第二個例子則是應用所提出的架構在電子化圖書館中，以其使用者能夠快速、有效率的在多個不同的資料庫中搜尋所需要的文獻資料。本論文所提出的架構有下列幾項優點，一是透過智慧型代理人的特性可以自動、動態的整合網路服務。二是透過本體論，智慧型代理人可以用更精確更符合語意的方式來找尋、啟動網路服務。三是使用者藉由將資料搜尋、擷取、處理、整合的工作分派給智慧型代理人，可以節省時間並專注於其核心工作。最後，所提出的架構具有彈性，可以動態的增加智慧型代理人、網路服務。

Creating, retrieving, distributing and analyzing heterogeneous information poses significant challenges for future decision-making. With the rapid development of technologies for high-throughput data production and the potential for enormous distributed databases, it is becoming increasingly clear that sophisticated methodology and software solutions will be required to harness the potential of these new vast sources of information. In this study, a framework for integrating data source and software tools by ontology-driven Multi-agent systems approach and Web service technology has been developed. Software services for dynamically retrieving and manipulating information from various knowledge base and platforms in this framework are wrapped as Web Services that are described semantically in terms of domain ontology. The Web Services are registered in a brokering service so that it can be dynamically discovered and invoked by personal agent, which represent user, through matching queries against their semantic descriptions. Two illustration examples implemented in JADE agent platform are provided in this study in order to explain and validate the proposed framework. First example regards to construct Virtual Observatory; while the second example demonstrates how federated search in electronic library can benefit from the proposed framework The contributions of this dissertation can be summarized as follows. Users may invoke a set of services to accomplish the tasks to be done with the assist of personal agent. Due to the autonomous characteristic of agent, it is believed that the users may delegate information processing to personal agent and focus on their core competence. The capabilities offered by agents to query and invoke semantically enriched Web services is based on enhanced registries enriched with semantic information that provide semantic matching to service queries and published service descriptions. Furthermore, new services, agents, and users can be easily added to the proposed framework, thus provide an extendable and flexible open system.