KR20070061116A - Intelligent multi agent system for providing personalized service and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

An intelligent multi-agent system and a method for providing a personalized service are provided to automatically offer a service corresponding to propensity of a user to a user mobile terminal without user interruption when a user enters a service domain by enabling an agent to monitor profile information storing interests of the user. A user agent(100) reports context and the interests of the user according to mobility of the user, and receives/implements the personalized service based on the context/interest information. Each service agent(300) controls operation of a physical device providing the personalized service to the user agent. A control agent(200) plans the personalized service and transfers a plan to the corresponding service agent by referring to registration information of each service agent based on the context/interest information of the user. The user agent includes a monitor periodically monitoring the context/interest information of the user, a profile manager, a user mobility detector detecting entry into the service domain(1) according to movement of the user, and a profile negotiator.

Description

INTELLIGENT MULTI AGENT SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING PERSONALIZED SERVICE AND METHOD THEREOF

1 is a configuration diagram of an environment based on an intelligent multi-agent system for providing a personalized service according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a detailed block diagram of a user agent according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a detailed block diagram of a coordination agent according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a detailed block diagram of a service agent according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a schematic diagram of a personalized service implementation method according to the operation of a coordination agent according to an embodiment of the present invention.

6 is a detailed diagram of a personalized service implementation method according to an operation of a coordination agent according to an embodiment of the present invention.

7 is a schematic diagram of a personalized service implementation method according to an operation of a user agent according to an embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a detailed diagram of a personalized service implementation method according to an operation of a user agent according to an embodiment of the present invention.

9 is a flowchart illustrating a personalized service through message exchange between agents in an intelligent multi-agent system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention relates to an intelligent multi-agent system and a method for providing a personalized service.

Ubiquitous technology is a paradigm shift from the existing terminal-oriented computing environment to the user-oriented computing environment. In addition, it is a technology to increase service immersion and user convenience by allowing the user to receive application services through various terminals of the network at any location of the network.

One of the biggest features of the application service based on ubiquitous computing technology is that all provide different personalized services according to individual characteristics.

In this case, the personalized service should be a personalized service that is closest to the user's needs and actually needed based on situational information and personal profile information around the user.

On the other hand, an agent is an independent software that automatically handles the tasks that a user wants on behalf of a user with knowledge and reasoning ability. A multi-agent system cannot be solved as a single agent by cooperation between several agents. To solve complex problems. The characteristic of a multi-agent system is that the capabilities and information among multiple agents are shared with each other.

In other words, a multi-agent system is a system in which agents with autonomy gather to exchange knowledge with each other and pursue their goals.The agent platform system provides a physical foundation on which agents can operate, and the language and communication used by agents. Method, determine the relationship between agents.

In particular, with the recent development of artificial intelligence technology, an intelligent agent system capable of handling various needs of users has been spotlighted. Such an intelligent agent system is a system that automatically solves a task desired by a user on behalf of a user, and is an autonomous process of performing a task on behalf of a user for a specific purpose.

As a conventional ubiquitous technology, Korean Patent Publication No. 2003-54104 (published on July 7, 2003) discloses an "apparatus and method for personalizing contents through matching a plurality of profile information", and various information is pre-structured, namely, And an apparatus and method for personalizing and providing contents according to a result of combining the profiles and matching the profiles.

As a ubiquitous technology using a conventional multi-agent technology, a paper published in the IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing published in January-March 2003 discloses "Policy-Driven Personalized Multimedia Services for Mobile Users". A system for providing personalized service to subscribers using agent technology is proposed.

However, the conventional content personalization service merely uses a plurality of profile information by matching and using it, and thus there is a problem in that it does not consider a time / spatial environment according to the dynamic and real time state of the mobile subscriber.

Accordingly, an aspect of the present invention is to provide an intelligent multi-agent system and method for autonomous service discovery and personalized service according to a user's movement to a service domain space.

According to a feature of the present invention in order to achieve the above problems,

Intelligent multi-agent system,

An intelligent multi-agent system in a ubiquitous environment, comprising: a user agent for reporting context information and user interest information according to a user's mobility and receiving and implementing a personalized service based on the user agent; At least one service agent controlling the operation of a physical device that provides the personalized service to the user agent; And a coordination agent that plans and delivers the personalized service to the corresponding service agent by referring to the registration information of each of the service agents based on the situation information and the user interest information received by an operation negotiated with the user agent. do.

According to another feature of the invention,

How to provide personalized service,

A method of providing a personalized service of an intelligent multi-agent system in a ubiquitous environment, the method comprising: (a) receiving, by a coordinating agent managing a plurality of service spaces, a service request from a user agent introduced into a specific service environment; (b) the coordination agent providing the user agent with list information in which valid service provision information is listed according to the service request; (c) receiving user context information and interest information from the user agent; (d) planning the personalized service based on the received information with reference to each registration information of a plurality of service agents providing a service; And (e) delivering the plan result to the service agent providing a service conforming to the plan to implement the personalized service to the user agent.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art may easily implement the present invention. As those skilled in the art would realize, the described embodiments may be modified in various different ways, all without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. In the drawings, parts irrelevant to the description are omitted in order to clearly describe the present invention, and like reference numerals designate like parts throughout the specification.

In addition, when a part is said to "include" a certain component, this means that it may further include other components, except to exclude other components unless otherwise stated.

In addition, the term module described herein refers to a unit for processing a specific function or operation, which may be implemented in hardware or software, or a combination of hardware and software.

Now, a multi-agent intelligent system for providing a personalized service and a method thereof according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a configuration diagram of an environment based on an intelligent multi-agent system for providing a personalized service according to an embodiment of the present invention.

According to FIG. 1, a physical resource and a computing object environment may be modeled for a smart space, which is an infrastructure of a ubiquitous environment, to provide a customized service closest to a user's needs.

Here, the smart space is a heterogeneous environment of various forms, which configures an agent-based computing object environment independent of a physical device, and performs sharing and management of distributed resources. In addition, the sharing and management of distributed resources may be implemented in distributed component environments such as Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM), Remote Merhod Invocation (RMI), and CORBA.

At this time, the heterogeneity problem of smart space emerges, which is solved through mutual compatibility of semantic information in distributed computing environment by enhancing interoperability through standardized interface and protocol definition between agents.

Thus, depending on the user's situation, each agent communicates its own intentions predefined by the developer to other agents in order to perform a specific purpose. You can solve it.

The intelligent multi-agent system consists of a framework 1 of a mobile communication user environment and a framework 2 of a smart space environment.

The framework 1 of a mobile communication user environment allows a user to store profile information about an item of interest of a user in a mobile device that is easy to carry so that a user can perform a personalization service regardless of time and place. Herein, the mobile device refers to a user portable device of a limited resource. It also uses the mobile platform as an interface for pervasive environments and personalization services. In other words, JADE-LEAP, an extended version of JADE developed in consideration of resource problems of small devices, can be used to build an agent communication base suitable for limited resource devices such as PDAs and smartphones.

The framework 2 of the smart space environment is mapped to a plurality of service agents in order to perform intelligent service for all things by accessing the agent community structure to the physical devices in each service domain space. At this time, the computing object implemented by each physical device and agent is managed by the mediator.

At this time, each framework may implement a service suitable for a user by performing an autonomous service by interpreting an association meaning through a service configuration between agents as a distributed multi-agent infrastructure.

The activity base between these agents is based on the interface and protocol standardization between agents according to the FIPA (Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents) standard. In this case, the semantic may be implemented through message exchange using a standardized language system such as ACL (Agent Communication Language), which is a communication language between agents.

Now, the agents for each framework are as follows.

The user agent 100 of the framework 1 of the mobile communication user environment accurately understands the current situation of the user, maintains it continuously, and performs the function of providing the service intelligently even if the user does not directly require the service. do.

The framework 2 of the smart space environment consists of a coordination agent 200 and a plurality of service agents 300.

The coordination agent 200 is a mediator means for performing message delivery and control of each service agent 300. The coordination agent 200 delivers a communication message between the user agent 100 and each service agent 300. In addition, it stores the unique ID of each service agent 300 and the registration information for the provided service. Based on the received situation information and profile information, it refers to service information provided by agents registered to it. By grasping the meaning of the extracted information, it provides a personalized service to the user by acting as a mediator to plan a service or selectively configure necessary agents to perform a specific service purpose.

The plurality of service agents 300 have their own IDs and information about the services provided, and registers this information with the coordination agent 200.

That is, the user agent 100 transmits context information such as interest information or behavior information of the user to the coordination agent 200. The coordination agent 200 extracts service information based on the received information and selectively configures agents necessary to plan a service or to perform a specific service purpose through grasping the meaning. The service agent 300 implements a service according to the service plan and configuration of the coordination agent 200. At this time, the operation of a service suitable for a specific situation is achieved by the system semantically processing between each agent through a rule engine.

Hereinafter, the detailed configuration of each agent will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4.

2 is a detailed block diagram of a user agent according to an embodiment of the present invention.

According to FIG. 2, the user agent 100 includes a monitoring unit 120, a user mobility sensing unit 140, a profile manager 160, and a profile negotiation unit 180.

The monitoring unit 120 periodically monitors user's situation information and interest information. That is, as the agent of the user, the current status and interest information of the current user is periodically monitored. In this case, the monitoring may specifically be a record of whether the user has allowed the service to be interested or whether the service item has not been accepted.

The user mobility detector 140 detects an ingress into a specific service space according to the movement of the user.

The profile manager 160 configures and stores the profile based on the situation information and the interest information of the user obtained through monitoring. In this case, more specifically, the initial profile creation module 162, the contextual information management module 164, and the interest information management module 166 may be included.

The initial profile creation module 162 configures an initial profile by receiving a user's preference through several questions about personal identity, interests, preferences, and the like. For example, in the case of a favorite movie, a music genre, or a hobby, information about the person may be formed into a profile by asking a few questions to the person.

The contextual information management module 164 generates contextual information according to the operation result of the monitoring unit 120 and the user mobility sensing unit 140 and reflects it to the profile.

The interest information management module 166 reflects the user's interest information, which is determined based on the operation result of the monitoring unit 120 and the provided personalized service, in the profile. More specifically, it is possible to record the operation mode of the physical device, to grasp the user's preference through the service provided to the user agent 100 to build a systematic profile. And when the service is executed, the structured profile is constructed by recording the properties of each service. In this way, as the user's frequency of use of the service increases, system log data in which activity information is recorded in each space gradually accumulates, and intelligent service performance can be achieved by learning a usage pattern through feedback.

The profile control module 168 controls the operations of the initial profile creation module 162, the contextual information management module 164, and the interest information management module 166, and stores the profile DB 170 storing the obtained profile. Equipped. After receiving the user's permission to transmit the information, the user decides to use the profile and extracts the profile accordingly. Here, privacy protection is set so that the profile stored in the profile DB 170 is hidden in the mobile device of the user and can be used according to the decision of the use of the profile. This is necessary to collect and share information for autonomous and automatic computing through the agent, but to prevent the exposure of individual's private activities.

The profile negotiator 180 negotiates a user profile with the coordination agent 200 to perform a series of operations of selecting specific service information from the list of valid service lists received from the coordination agent 200 and corresponding service reception. Do it autonomously. Here, the information in which the valid service list is listed is received by transmitting the profile to the coordination agent 200 after receiving the permission to transmit the profile from the user.

In more detail, the profile negotiation unit 180 includes a user authentication module 182, a first agent interface module 184, and a profile negotiation control module 186.

The user authentication module 182 obtains permission to transmit the profile from the user. That is, a user authentication operation is performed to consider performing information exchange that can protect personal privacy by obtaining permission to transmit information from an agent user.

The first agent interface module 184 is a means for performing an agent authentication operation with the coordination agent 200 according to whether the transmission permission is obtained and transmitting a profile and receiving a personalized service. At this time, the agent authentication work is performed when the user moves to a specific service space. The communication with the coordination agent 200 uses a standardized agent communication language and protocol to perform semantic processing of dynamically changing user information.

The profile negotiation control module 186 implements profile negotiation by controlling the operations of the user authentication module 182 and the first agent interface module 184.

3 is a detailed block diagram of a coordination agent according to an embodiment of the present invention.

According to FIG. 3, the coordination agent 200 includes an agent information manager 210, a service information extractor 220, a service planner 230, a service determiner 240, and a second agent interface 250. do.

The agent information manager 210 manages registration information including a unique ID of each service agent and information on a provided service.

The service information extracting unit 220 extracts the corresponding service information by referring to the registered information of the agent information managing unit 210 based on the profile received from the user agent 100.

The service planning unit 230 plans a personalized service through grasping the meaning of the extracted service information, and selects and configures the corresponding service agent 300.

The service determination unit 240 notifies the service agent 300 of the result of the service planning unit 230.

The second agent interface unit 250 communicates with the user agent 100 and the service agent 300 using an agent communication language and protocol specified.

4 is a detailed block diagram of a service agent according to an embodiment of the present invention.

According to FIG. 4, the service agent 300 includes a physical device driver 310, a physical device controller 320, and a third agent interface unit 330.

The physical device driver 310 drives a physical device that provides a personalized service to the user agent 100.

The physical device controller 320 receives a service plan for the personalized service from the coordination agent 200 and controls the physical device driver 310 accordingly.

The third agent interface unit 330 configures a communication message to determine whether or not the execution result of the physical device driver 310 according to the service plan received from the coordination agent 200 and the final execution result to be transmitted to the user agent 100 are coordinated. Deliver to agent 200.

5 is a schematic diagram of a personalized service implementation method according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a detailed view of a personalized service implementation method according to an embodiment of the present invention, in particular according to the operation of the coordination agent 200.

Referring to FIG. 5, a coordination agent 200 managing a plurality of service spaces first receives a service request from a user agent 100 entering a specific service space (S101).

Next, according to the service request, the user agent provides list information in which valid service provision information is listed (S103). In this case, the list information in which valid service provision information is listed indicates a service available in the current service space.

Next, the user's situation information and interest information is received from the user agent 100 (S105).

Next, a personalized service is planned based on the received information with reference to each registration information of the plurality of service agents providing the service (S107). In this case, since the service result according to the preferences of all users may not always be satisfactory, it is possible to plan a high-quality service that satisfies the personal characteristics in consideration of the background attributes according to the service provision such as priority of priority, volume, and lighting.

Next, the personalized service is implemented in the user agent 100 by delivering it to the service agent 300 that provides the service corresponding to the plan result (S109).

As a more detailed process of this procedure, according to FIG. 6, first, registration information of the service agent 300 is received from the service agent 300 and stored (S201).

Next, the user's context information and interest information generated according to the monitoring operation of the user agent 100 are received (S203).

Next, the service information corresponding to the information received in the step S203 is extracted with reference to the registration information of the service agent 300 (S205).

Next, the personalized service is planned by selecting and configuring the service agent 300 through grasping the meaning of the service information extracted in the step S205 (S207). In this case, the personalized service is planned by receiving the profile information of the user according to the result of performing the previous service of the user agent 100 from the service agent 300 and negotiating with the information received from the user agent 100.

Next, the planned result is transmitted to the service agent 300 in the form of a message (S209).

7 is a schematic diagram of a personalized service implementation method according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 8 is a detailed view of a personalized service implementation method according to an embodiment of the present invention, in particular according to the operation of the user agent 100.

According to FIG. 7, first, a personalized service is requested by detecting entry into a specific service space through user location information (S301).

Next, a list of valid service provision lists is received according to the request (S303).

Next, a predetermined profile composed of user's situation information and interest information is transmitted (S305).

Next, the personalized service is provided according to the profile (S307).

As a more detailed process of this procedure, according to FIG. 8, first, an initial profile is created and stored based on personal information and preference information input from a user (S401).

Next, situation information and user interest information according to the mobility of the user are periodically monitored (S403).

Next, a profile is configured and stored based on the situation information and the interest information of the user obtained through monitoring (S405).

Next, an incoming to a specific service space is detected according to the movement (S407).

Next, a communication connection is performed to the coordination agent 200 managing the specific service space (S409).

Next, a profile transmission permission is obtained from the user (S411).

Next, an agent authentication operation is performed with the coordination agent 200 according to the acquisition in the step S409 (S413).

Next, the personalized service is requested according to the authentication operation in the step S411 (S415). At this time, the user's ID, basic information, and the like are transmitted to the coordination agent 200.

Next, valid service list information is received (S417).

Next, the profile is transmitted according to whether the user permits the transmission of the profile (S419).

Then, a personalized service corresponding to the planned target service is provided based on the profile transmitted in step S419 (S421).

Then, the stored profile is updated based on the personalized service provided after the step S421 (S423).

As a result, the profile created once should maintain the latest user profile reflecting the user's area of interest and characteristics through continuous machine learning, and according to the interest of the user, each agent performs intelligent knowledge service that responds accordingly. And an operation mode can be automatically determined.

9 is a flowchart illustrating a personalized service through message exchange between agents in an intelligent multi-agent system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The service agent 300 in charge of the physical device of each space registers service information such as an agent ID and a service type with the coordination agent 200 (S501).

The user, who has been identified for system performance, stores the item of interest information in his mobile device and configures a profile (Input Profile) (S503).

When the user agent 100 enters a specific service space through the user's location information, the user agent 100 communicates with the coordination agent 200 and transmits user ID and profile information to the coordination agent 200 (Entered_Space (ID, profile Info)). (...) (S505).

Next, it receives a service confirmation (Msg (Welcome & Service Confirmation)) for receiving information from the coordination agent 200 (S507).

Then, the user agent 100 transmits (Respond (Acceptance & Rejection)) to the coordination agent 200 with respect to the received content (S507) (S509).

Then, the user agent 100 receives and displays the information (Available Resource Report) listing the valid service provision list from the coordination agent 200 (S511). In this case, the expression may be performed by a push or a user selection method.

Then, the user agent 100 transmits (Select_Resource (Service Resource)) the profile consisting of the item of interest and the situation information (S513).

Then, the coordination agent 200 sends a message (Decision_Request (Run Service)) to the service agents 300 in charge of the physical device according to the target service plan established by identifying the profile received in the step (S513) device Drive (S515).

Then, each service agent 300 delivers a message Decision_Respond (Success Inform) to the coordination agent 200 as to whether the execution result (S517).

Then, the coordination agent 200 delivers a message (Display (Result: Success)) to the user agent 100 with respect to the final performance information (S519) .

The embodiments of the present invention described above are not implemented only through the apparatus and the method, but may be implemented through a program for realizing a function corresponding to the configuration of the embodiment of the present invention or a recording medium on which the program is recorded. Implementation may be easily implemented by those skilled in the art from the description of the above-described embodiments.

The scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but various modifications and improvements of those skilled in the art using the basic concept of the present invention as defined in the following claims are also within the scope of the present invention.

By the above-described configuration, various services that are rapidly and dynamically changed in accordance with the movement of the position of the person are provided. At this time, by minimizing the user's involvement, according to the interest or not, the service is automatically provided without the user's inclination.

In addition, by storing profile information of the user's item of interest in the user's mobile mobile device, a personalized service through monitoring of the agent is provided.

Accordingly, the present invention seeks to improve personalized service quality through real-time generation of a service profile in consideration of a user's time / spatial situation and granting a subscriber's profile related options. In addition, through profile negotiation, service profiles are created based on real-time profile information considering the user's time / place environment, and personalized service provision is performed.

Claims (13)

In the intelligent multi-agent system in the ubiquitous environment, A user agent for reporting context information and user interest information according to a user's mobility and receiving and implementing a personalized service based thereon; At least one service agent controlling the operation of a physical device that provides the personalized service to the user agent; And Coordination agent for planning and delivering the personalized service to the corresponding service agent by referring to the registration information of each service agent based on the situation information and user interest information received by the user agent in consultation with the user agent Intelligent multi-agent system that includes. The method of claim 1, The user agent, A monitoring unit that periodically monitors user's situation information and interest information; A profile manager configured to configure and store a profile based on the situation information and the interest information of the user obtained through the monitoring; A user mobility detector configured to detect an entry into a specific service space according to the movement of the user; When the user movement is detected, the profile is transmitted to the coordination agent according to whether the user permits the transmission of the profile to receive a list in which valid service information is listed, and the coordination agent for service information included in the received list. Profile negotiation unit that performs a series of operations to select specific service information through the negotiation with Intelligent multi-agent system that includes. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The profile negotiation unit A user authentication module for obtaining a transmission permission of the profile from a user; A first agent interface module configured to perform an agent authentication operation with the coordination agent according to whether the transmission permission is obtained and to transmit the profile and receive the personalized service; And Profile negotiation control module for controlling the series of operations Intelligent multi-agent system that includes. The method of claim 3, The coordination agent An agent information manager configured to manage registration information including a unique ID of each service agent and information on a provided service; A service information extracting unit extracting corresponding service information with reference to the registration information based on the profile received from the user agent; Plan the personalized service by understanding the meaning of the extracted service information, A service planner for selecting and configuring a corresponding service agent; A service decision unit for notifying the service agent of a result of performing the service plan unit; Intelligent multi-agent system that includes. The method of claim 4, wherein A second agent interface unit for performing communication using an agent communication language and a protocol specified with the user agent and the service agent; Intelligent multi-agent system further comprising. The method of claim 5, The service agent A physical device driver configured to drive a physical device providing the personalized service to the user agent; A physical device controller that receives the service plan for the personalized service from the coordination agent and controls the physical device driver accordingly; And A third agent interface unit which receives the service plan from the service agent, reports whether the execution result of the physical device driver is executed, to the service agent, and delivers a final execution result to the user agent; Intelligent multi-agent system that includes. The method of claim 6, The profile management unit Intelligent multi-agent system, characterized in that the use of the profile only after receiving the information transmission permission information from the user authentication unit. The method of claim 7, wherein The profile management unit An initial profile creation module for creating and storing a profile based on personal information and preference information input from the user; A situation information management module generating situation information according to an operation result of the monitoring unit and the user mobility sensing unit and updating the stored profile; And An interest information management module for updating the interest information of the stored profile based on the operation result of the monitoring unit and the personalized service provided from the coordination agent Intelligent multi-agent system that includes. The method of claim 8, The coordination agent Intelligent service system, characterized in that the service plan is established by referring to the structured profile of the user's preferences through the record information of the operation mode of the physical device and the service provided to the user agent. In the method for providing personalized service of intelligent multi-agent system in ubiquitous environment, (a) receiving, by a coordinating agent managing a plurality of service spaces, a service request from a user agent introduced into a specific service environment; (b) the coordination agent providing the user agent with list information in which valid service provision information is listed according to the service request; (c) receiving user context information and interest information from the user agent; (d) planning the personalized service based on the received information with reference to each registration information of a plurality of service agents providing a service; And (e) delivering the plan result to the service agent providing a service conforming to the plan to implement the personalized service to the user agent Service providing method comprising a. The method of claim 10, Before step (a) above, Receiving and storing registration information of the service agent from the service agent Service providing method further comprising. The method according to claim 10 or 11, wherein Step (d) (Iv) extracting service information corresponding to the information received from the user agent by referring to the registration information of the service agent; And (Ii) planning the personalized service by selecting and configuring the service agent by grasping the meaning of the extracted service information; (Iii) communicating the planned result to the service agent Service providing method comprising a. The method of claim 12, Step (ii) is Receiving the profile information of the user according to a result of the previous service execution of the user agent from the service agent and planning the personalized service through negotiation with information received from the user agent.

Images