Optimizing steel industry supply chains through constraint and market-oriented programming. Supply chain optimization is a difficult problem, but of considerable significance to business enterprises. Constraint programming technology is a promising approach to solving such problems, but is inadequate in the context of dynamic supply chains. Market-oriented programming solves resource allocation problems by setting up artificial computational economies of trading software agents and holds promise ....Optimizing steel industry supply chains through constraint and market-oriented programming. Supply chain optimization is a difficult problem, but of considerable significance to business enterprises. Constraint programming technology is a promising approach to solving such problems, but is inadequate in the context of dynamic supply chains. Market-oriented programming solves resource allocation problems by setting up artificial computational economies of trading software agents and holds promise both as an optimization tool and as a tool that supports explicit market negotiation. This project seeks to address several open questions relating to the integrated deployment of these two classes of techniques, in the context of building a practical supply chain optimization system for BHP Steel.Read moreRead less
Intelligent Structured Knowledge Source Integration via Software Agents. This project aims to use flexible information agents to integrate the World Wide Web with a machine readable ontology, namely a large, consistent collection of common sense knowledge. The best developed ontology in the world is Cyc. Cyc's repository of general purpose knowledge is rich and stable, but has a major limitation in requiring its knowledge to be hand-entered by experts. The outcomes of the project will be increas ....Intelligent Structured Knowledge Source Integration via Software Agents. This project aims to use flexible information agents to integrate the World Wide Web with a machine readable ontology, namely a large, consistent collection of common sense knowledge. The best developed ontology in the world is Cyc. Cyc's repository of general purpose knowledge is rich and stable, but has a major limitation in requiring its knowledge to be hand-entered by experts. The outcomes of the project will be increased functionality for ontologies, to enable expert reasoning programs wishing to use a formal ontology such as Cyc to have access to the wealth of knowledge on the World Wide Web.Read moreRead less
Integrated constraint-based planning and scheduling. Constraint programming is a relatively new technology based on artificial intellgence techniques that is becoming a popular tool for developing industrial optimisation solutions. While constraint programming has been used extensively for solving industrial scheduling problems, very little has been done in developing constraint-based integrated producting planning and scheduling systems. The size and complexity of typical production planning a ....Integrated constraint-based planning and scheduling. Constraint programming is a relatively new technology based on artificial intellgence techniques that is becoming a popular tool for developing industrial optimisation solutions. While constraint programming has been used extensively for solving industrial scheduling problems, very little has been done in developing constraint-based integrated producting planning and scheduling systems. The size and complexity of typical production planning and scheduling problems requires the innovative use of the latest developments in constraint programming technology, together with a variety of other artificial intelligence techniques. This project seeks to develop and implement a new conceptual framework for integrated constraint-based planning and scheduling, using BHP Steel as a test - bed.Read moreRead less
Reconceiving Machine Learning. The proposed research will develop a new way to consider problems to which machine learning can be applied. Machine learning is crucial enabler of the digital economy. The research will provide better opportunities for Australian industry to gain a competitive advantage with machine learning technology. The framework developed will enable better opportunities for collaborative research and will build and strengthen international linkages.
A more intelligent knowledge-based system apprentice. Our previous techniques already had an impact on Australian industry, with five Australian companies marketing such technology, and for three of these it is a central technology. We expect an early uptake of the enhancements we propose by these companies, greatly increasing their international competitiveness against other rule technologies. Three of these companies are very recent, so we would expect other company uptake of the new enhance ....A more intelligent knowledge-based system apprentice. Our previous techniques already had an impact on Australian industry, with five Australian companies marketing such technology, and for three of these it is a central technology. We expect an early uptake of the enhancements we propose by these companies, greatly increasing their international competitiveness against other rule technologies. Three of these companies are very recent, so we would expect other company uptake of the new enhanced technology. In turn Australian companies using the technology will improve their competitiveness in an increasingly knowledge-based economy by being able to more rapidly and easily deploy knowledge-based systems. Our previous techniques have already had a significant impact in medical practice.Read moreRead less
Automatic Ontology Learning and Data Reasoning in Web Mining. This research has an impact on both research and practical applications. In research, it provides opportunities for research students to carry out research using both data mining and data reasoning to solving Web based application problems. In practical, it can help IT industry to design the new generation of Web mining systems in order to provide invaluable service to users. This research also develops new techniques for data automa ....Automatic Ontology Learning and Data Reasoning in Web Mining. This research has an impact on both research and practical applications. In research, it provides opportunities for research students to carry out research using both data mining and data reasoning to solving Web based application problems. In practical, it can help IT industry to design the new generation of Web mining systems in order to provide invaluable service to users. This research also develops new techniques for data automatic processing within areas of smart information use in Australia. In particular it further develops data mining techniques by introducing data reasoning models for using discovered knowledge. It must be useful to improve the efficiency of the existing data mining systems. 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
"It's all about me" - Anthropomorphised Trading in Believable Electronic Markets. There is a need for trustful business environments that will open up the e-markets to a greater population of traders. This project looks at the development of believable e-markets that address this need. Proposed 3D electronic institution technology is expected to facilitate the establishment of robust business structures as the believability of the business activities and interactions in such e-markets will ensur ...."It's all about me" - Anthropomorphised Trading in Believable Electronic Markets. There is a need for trustful business environments that will open up the e-markets to a greater population of traders. This project looks at the development of believable e-markets that address this need. Proposed 3D electronic institution technology is expected to facilitate the establishment of robust business structures as the believability of the business activities and interactions in such e-markets will ensure the principles of trust and reputation in the electronic markets of tomorrow.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
The Curious Negotiator -- committing only to that which is maximally non-committal. Despite the hype surrounding electronic business-to-business commerce, little business is conducted completely automatically as yet due to the complexity of the issues being negotiated and by the high value of the deals involved. Sophisticated and reliable negotiation technology is required to address this shortcoming. This project looks beyond electronic business to informed negotiation in a broad sense. It w ....The Curious Negotiator -- committing only to that which is maximally non-committal. Despite the hype surrounding electronic business-to-business commerce, little business is conducted completely automatically as yet due to the complexity of the issues being negotiated and by the high value of the deals involved. Sophisticated and reliable negotiation technology is required to address this shortcoming. This project looks beyond electronic business to informed negotiation in a broad sense. It will create reliable automatic negotiators for which information is a strategic weapon. It will build systems to extract reliable market information. The whole project is embedded in electronic institutions that foreshadow the electronic markets of tomorrow.Read moreRead less