Exploiting Structure in AI Planning. The research will improve our ability to build generic, automated planning systems, which can efficiently select effective courses of actions in a range of situations such as crisis management, project planning, military operations planning, and transportation. It will help reduce the cost of building software to more efficiently solve important problems occurring in validating, controlling, and diagnosing complex systems. More generally, it will advance our ....Exploiting Structure in AI Planning. The research will improve our ability to build generic, automated planning systems, which can efficiently select effective courses of actions in a range of situations such as crisis management, project planning, military operations planning, and transportation. It will help reduce the cost of building software to more efficiently solve important problems occurring in validating, controlling, and diagnosing complex systems. More generally, it will advance our understanding of how machines can intelligently solve complex problems by identifying and exploiting their relevant structure.Read moreRead less
Where the Really Hard Problems Are: Beyond the Decision Case. This is a project in empirical artificial intelligence. We study factors affecting the average difficulty of computing optimal or near-optimal solutions to instances of problems whose worst cases are typically intractable. Most existing research on the distribution of hard instances concerns decision questions, where the issue is whether solutions exist or not. We seek comparable results for optimization, where the goal is the best so ....Where the Really Hard Problems Are: Beyond the Decision Case. This is a project in empirical artificial intelligence. We study factors affecting the average difficulty of computing optimal or near-optimal solutions to instances of problems whose worst cases are typically intractable. Most existing research on the distribution of hard instances concerns decision questions, where the issue is whether solutions exist or not. We seek comparable results for optimization, where the goal is the best solution, and for approximation, where the goal is a good solution. Expected outcomes include new heuristics for search algorithms, new methods for predicting search costs, and explanations of the average case behaviour of algorithms.Read moreRead less
Model checking Multi-Agent System and its applications. This research project directly addresses two of the Australian Government's four National Research Priorities: National Research Priorities 3 and 4. It will develop an enabling technology that is applicable to the development of safety-intensive and highly dependable software systems like medical equipment and airport controlling systems. The security protocol analysis technologies developed by this project can be useful for providing impro ....Model checking Multi-Agent System and its applications. This research project directly addresses two of the Australian Government's four National Research Priorities: National Research Priorities 3 and 4. It will develop an enabling technology that is applicable to the development of safety-intensive and highly dependable software systems like medical equipment and airport controlling systems. The security protocol analysis technologies developed by this project can be useful for providing improved ways of military operation flows, and for making Australian security communication systems more dependable.Read moreRead less
Sharing Complex Systems information by challenging the orthodoxies of linear presentation. Information Technology has contributed more to working with complex systems than to communicating them. Presentation software styled on the power of the point hardly addresses the restrictions of traditional media: sequential visual information display with little possibility for the cross-reference needed to communicate a complex situation.
This research will test the effectiveness of our multidimension ....Sharing Complex Systems information by challenging the orthodoxies of linear presentation. Information Technology has contributed more to working with complex systems than to communicating them. Presentation software styled on the power of the point hardly addresses the restrictions of traditional media: sequential visual information display with little possibility for the cross-reference needed to communicate a complex situation.
This research will test the effectiveness of our multidimensional presentation software prototype in a range of complex system situations in order to improve the opportunities for interactive spatial media in today's work and learning environments.
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Intelligent Agents for Concept Invention of Design Forms. Concept invention refers to the act of discovering new concepts for the first time. Concept invention may require a new interpretation and a shift in intentional mode that motivates new mappings of the situation prior to the discovery of a new concept. This project is concerned with developing intelligent design agents that are capable of inventing creative concepts of design forms, shapes and compositions while involved in the design pr ....Intelligent Agents for Concept Invention of Design Forms. Concept invention refers to the act of discovering new concepts for the first time. Concept invention may require a new interpretation and a shift in intentional mode that motivates new mappings of the situation prior to the discovery of a new concept. This project is concerned with developing intelligent design agents that are capable of inventing creative concepts of design forms, shapes and compositions while involved in the design process. A new approach of exploiting the notion of displacement of concepts with regard to concept invention in designing will be adopted and utilised in developing the structure of intelligent agents.Read moreRead less
Complexity Measures Of Design Spaces As Basis For Mass Customisation Of Novel Designs. This project aims to develop, implement and test a means to determine the potential of any arbitrary design generator to produce a diversity of designs and to utilise that means to control the mass customisation of novel designs. Globalisation of markets has produced the need to be able to mass customise designs that are not simple variants of existing designs. Any improvement in Australia's capacity to provid ....Complexity Measures Of Design Spaces As Basis For Mass Customisation Of Novel Designs. This project aims to develop, implement and test a means to determine the potential of any arbitrary design generator to produce a diversity of designs and to utilise that means to control the mass customisation of novel designs. Globalisation of markets has produced the need to be able to mass customise designs that are not simple variants of existing designs. Any improvement in Australia's capacity to provide this service will improve both its internal efficiency and increase its competitiveness in the increasing international marketplace for designing through the production of the basis for a new class of designing tools.Read moreRead less
Curious Places: Agent-Mediated Self-Aware Worlds. This project develops and demonstrates a model of curious places: physical and digital environments that adapt their behaviour based on their experiences. This means that we can implement new kinds of places, rooms, public spaces, that respond to human activity and new technology by creating their own goals and behaviours. This is a benefit to Australia by expanding its capability in home automation and leading developments in novel human-comput ....Curious Places: Agent-Mediated Self-Aware Worlds. This project develops and demonstrates a model of curious places: physical and digital environments that adapt their behaviour based on their experiences. This means that we can implement new kinds of places, rooms, public spaces, that respond to human activity and new technology by creating their own goals and behaviours. This is a benefit to Australia by expanding its capability in home automation and leading developments in novel human-computer interfaces. This benefit can provide economic gain to Australia through the development of frontier technologies.Read moreRead less
Advanced Software Engineering Support for Intelligent Agent Systems. Software Agents are an important technology for developing the complex software systems that are increasingly required to meet the needs of society. A crucial obstacle to the widespread adoption of agent technology is the lack of an appropriate software engineering methodology. This project proposes to explore support for design processes addressing advanced issues in agent systems, such as goal-based requirements, debugging ....Advanced Software Engineering Support for Intelligent Agent Systems. Software Agents are an important technology for developing the complex software systems that are increasingly required to meet the needs of society. A crucial obstacle to the widespread adoption of agent technology is the lack of an appropriate software engineering methodology. This project proposes to explore support for design processes addressing advanced issues in agent systems, such as goal-based requirements, debugging using design artefacts, component-based design, and reuse. We will also extend the methodology to support teamwork and open systems. We will be building on successful work we have already done in establishing a basic agent oriented software design methodology.Read moreRead less
Emergency Control of Catastrophic Disturbances in a Power System. Following the tragic events of 11 September 2001, there are increased concerns about the security and robustness of power systems to evolving spectra of threats, such as natural disasters (e.g., earthquakes and hurricanes), equipment failure, human error, or deliberate sabotage and attack by terrorists. In this project, pattern recognition of local parameter changes in distributed monitoring systems will be used to identify any th ....Emergency Control of Catastrophic Disturbances in a Power System. Following the tragic events of 11 September 2001, there are increased concerns about the security and robustness of power systems to evolving spectra of threats, such as natural disasters (e.g., earthquakes and hurricanes), equipment failure, human error, or deliberate sabotage and attack by terrorists. In this project, pattern recognition of local parameter changes in distributed monitoring systems will be used to identify any threatened breakdown in the power system. Once identified, methods based on intelligent agents will be used to trigger the appropriate countermeasures to maintain the integrity of transmission grids.Read moreRead less
Efficient Prediction of Application Metrics for E-Services. Application Service Providers (ASPs) are one of the fastest growing classes of e-services and operate on the principle of renting software applications. This project aims to develop prediction techniques to estimate quality of service metrics for ASPs. The efficient prediction of the service levels that can be ensured is challenging given the dynamic nature of the Internet and the semantics of application metrics not being formally defi ....Efficient Prediction of Application Metrics for E-Services. Application Service Providers (ASPs) are one of the fastest growing classes of e-services and operate on the principle of renting software applications. This project aims to develop prediction techniques to estimate quality of service metrics for ASPs. The efficient prediction of the service levels that can be ensured is challenging given the dynamic nature of the Internet and the semantics of application metrics not being formally defined. The project will result in the development of a prototype system to support prediction of service levels. This system will be accessible to the Australian e-services industry via a web interface.Read moreRead less