Skip to main content
Journal of the Brazilian Computer Society
Download PDF

Using agents and ontologies for application development on the semantic web

Journal of the Brazilian Computer Society volume 13, pages 35–44 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

The Semantic Web provides access to heterogeneous, distributed information, enabling software products to mediate between user needs and the information sources available. Agents are one of the most promising technologies for the development of Semantic Web software products. However, agent-based technologies will not become widespread until there are adequate infrastructures for the development of semantic multi-agent systems (MAS). Some challenges, such as turning software agents into practical abstractions for dealing with ontologies, taking advantage of the distributed nature of the Web to create distributed agents and making a seamless integration with existing Web tools, e.g. the browser, still need to be addressed. This paper describes the main features of the SemantiCore framework, an agent infrastructure to develop semantic MAS. A look at a benchmark Semantic Web application illustrates the SemantiCore potential as an infrastructure for the deployment of semantic agent applications.

References

  1. Bergenti, F.; Poggi, A. Agent-oriented software construction with UML.The Handbook of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering (vol. 2), Emerging Technologies, 2002, pp. 757–769.

  2. Berners-Lee, T.; Hendler, J.; Lassila, O. The Semantic Web,Scientific American 1(5), 2001, pp. 34–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. de Bruijn, J.; Polleres, A.; Lara, R.; Fensel, D. OWL DL vs. OWL Flight: Conceptual Modeling and Reasoning for the Semantic Web.Proceedings of the 14th International World Wide Web Conference, 2005, pp. 623–632.

  4. Ciancarini, P.; Omicini, A.; Zambonelli, F. Multiagent systems engineering: The coordination viewpoint.Intelligents Agents VI: Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages, LNAI 1767, Springer-Verlag , 2000, pp. 250–259.

  5. DeLoach, S. A. Modeling organizational rules in the multi-agent systems engineering methodology.Proceedings of the 15th Congress of the Canadian Society for Computational Studies of Intelligence, LNCS 2338, 2002, pp. 1–15.

  6. FIPA ACL Message Structure Specification.http://www.fipa.org/specs/fipa00061, 2001.

  7. Hendler, J.A. Agents and the Semantic Web,IEEE Intelligent Systems 16(2), 2001, pp. 30–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Horrocks, I.; Patel-Schneider, P.F. A proposal for an OWL rules language.Proceedings of the 13th International World Wide Web Conference, 2004, pp. 723–731.

  9. Java Agent DEvelopment Framework.http://jade.tilab.com/, 2006.

  10. Semantic Web Framework for Java.http://jena.sourceforge.net/, 2006

  11. Jennings, N.R.; Wooldridge, M. Agent oriented software engineering.The Handbook of Agent Technology, MIT Press, Massachussetts, 2000, pp. 1–24.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Jennings, N.R. An agent-based approach for building complex software systems.Communications of the ACM 44(4), 2001, pp. 35–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Labrou, Y. Agents and ontologies for ebusiness.Knowledge Engineering Review 17(1), 2002, pp. 81–85.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Negri, A.; Poggi, A. ; Tomaiuolo, M.; Turci, P. Agents for e-Business Applications.Proceedings of the 5th International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, 2006, pp. 907–914.

  15. Lister, K.; Sterling, L. Agents in a Multi-Cultural World: Towards Ontological Reconciliation.Proceedings of the 14th Australian Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (LNCS 2256), 2001, pp. 321–332.

  16. Lister, K.; Sterling, L. Reconciling Ontological Differences for Intelligent Agents.Proceedings 5th International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, 2006, pp. 943–945.

  17. OntoBuilder,http://iew3.technion.ac.il/OntoBuilder, 2006

  18. Parunak, H.V.D. Go to the ant: Engineering principles from natural agent systems.Annals of Operations Research 75, 1997, pp. 69–101.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  19. Patil, R.S.; Fikes, R.E.; Patel-Scheneider, P.F.; McKay, D.; Finin, T.; Gruber, T.; Neches, R. The DARPA knowledge sharing effort: progress report.Proceedings of 3rd Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, 1992, pp. 103–114.

  20. Silva, N.; Rocha, J.; Cardoso J. E-Business interoperability through ontology semantic mapping.Proceedings of Processes and Foundations for Virtual Organizations, 2003, pp. 315–322.

  21. Sycara K.P.; Paolucci, M.; van Velsen, M.; Giampapa J.A. The RETSINA MAS Infrastructure.Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 7(1–2), 2003, pp. 29–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Tello, A.L.; Gómez-Pérez, A. ONTOMETRIC: A Method to Choose the Appropriate Ontology.Journal on Database Management 15(2), 2004, pp. 1–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Wooldridge, M. Agent-based software engineering.IEE Proceedings on Software Engineering 144(1), 1997, pp. 26–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Zambonelli, F.; Omicini, A.Challenges and Research Directions in Agent-Oriented Software Engineering, Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Sytems 9, 2004, pp. 253–283.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Zambonelli, F.; Jennings, N.; Wooldridge, M. Developing multiagent systems: The Gaia methodology.ACM Transactions on Software Engineering Methodology 12(3) 2003, pp. 417–470.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facin, Pucrs, Av. Ipiranga 6681, 90619-900, Porto Alegre/RS, Brazil

    Marcelo Blois & Maurício Escobar

  2. Computer Engineering Department, IME, Pça Gen Tibúrcio, 80, 22290-270, Rio de Janeiro/RJ, Brazil

    Ricardo Choren

Authors
  1. Marcelo Blois
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Maurício Escobar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ricardo Choren
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Blois, M., Escobar, M. & Choren, R. Using agents and ontologies for application development on the semantic web. J Braz Comp Soc 13, 35–44 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03192408

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03192408

Keywords