I-X Process Panels – User Guide - AIAI
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1. lt content strings gt lt list gt lt string gt Sample chat text 1 lt string gt lt string gt Sample chat text two lt string gt lt string gt More chat lt string gt lt string gt This time there will be several lines of text and maybe some indentation just for variety and a last line lt string gt lt list gt lt content strings gt lt template gt lt test item gt lt to name gt lt string gt me lt string gt lt to name gt lt contents gt lt chat message gt lt contents gt lt test item gt lt template gt lt test sequence generator gt Menu separators can be specified in the test menu file The XML syntax is lt test separator gt Just include it in the list between the test items you want to separate Using the Test Menu Entries in the Test menu do not have to send messages They don t even need to involve any of the objects described here However this section will describe only the cases that can be specified by a test menu file 32 If a single message is to be sent without a delay it is sent as soon as its Test menu entry is selected That is so regardless of whether it came from a single test item or from a 1 item test sequence Otherwise a new thread is created to supervise the message sending While that thread is running the corresponding menu entry is prefixed by Stop and if selected stops the thread When the thread terminates the entry r2. It is worth noting that the Domain panel i e the panel that is responsible for editing global details about the domain like its name only considers domain details as part of its editing remit not the constructs within the domain While there is no function that undoes individual editing steps the following functions are available corresponding to the 3 levels of saving Corresponding to the different levels of editing and saving there are different levels of undoing changes 1 Edit gt Undo edit undoes an editing step Undo operations can themselves be undone by the Edit gt Redo command 2 File gt Open as draft domain revert the whole domain to the last time it was saved to file by re loading the file This change cannot be undone if unsure first save the current draft domain to a different file 3 Edit gt Revert to Published revert a construct to its state in the most recent published version that is undo all changes to this construct since the domain was last published Once again this change cannot be undone if unsure first save the current draft domain to a different file There is a fourth revert function for convenience File gt Discard domain changes which reverts the whole domain and not just the current construct to its state in the latest published version that is it undoes all changes to all constructs since the domain was last published 4 4 Use of XML and Text Editors There
3. 19 simple demonstrations and testing to occur The contents of the Test menu can be set using an XML file describing the entries and informing the panel about this file using the test menu lt pathname gt parameter see Appendix A for details of all parameters An example test menu file follows Note using me for as the value of the to name attribute means the message is sent to the current panel rather than externally The value of menu text is what actually appears as an entry in the Test menu A to item in the menu text string if present is substituted by the to name of the panel or agent for which the message is intended lt xml version 1 0 encoding UTF 8 gt lt list gt lt test item menu text Send Sto a request for transport to name Supervisor gt lt contents gt lt activity priority high report back yes gt lt pattern gt lt list gt lt symbol gt transport_by_helicopter lt symbol gt lt item var gt wounded lt item var gt lt symbol gt field_hospital_a lt symbol gt lt list gt lt pattern gt lt activity gt lt contents gt lt test item gt lt list gt More details of setting up a test menu are provided in Appendix C 8 2 Advanced Tailoring You can further tailor an I X Process Panel to a specific application by renaming and amending the I Sample Process Panel code as follows You can rename the java isample directory to be java myap
4. I X Process Panels User Guide Austin Tate Jeff Dalton Jussi Stader and Stephen Potter Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications School of Informatics The University of Edinburgh Appleton Tower Crichton Street Edinburgh EH8 9LE UK Web http i x info E mail query i x info Version 4 0 31 August 2004 CONTENTS 0 How To Use This Guide ccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 3 1 Introduction to I X and I X Process Panels I P o ae 4 1 1 I X Research Programme qu cccceccceeeeeeneeeeeeeeneeeeeeeeeeeaseeeeeenseeeeeensseneeeeeseeneeenssseeeenseseanens 4 1 2 1 X Process Panels l P eiscscdicede zwcceccvzacdstdvtursscrsunstinddy cacgcssnsavcitancndienityradhucsveuvestayeaninss 5 2 QUICK Start G idesisissioisiinisssin inssin ananin nue tecaseteescansueestanannnnacantence 7 3 Using an l X Process Panel sesseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeseeeeeeeees 9 4 I X Domain Editor ISDE ssssssssssssssssnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn 11 AT E E aA E T A E E E T E T 11 4 2 Using the I DE Domain Editor Tool cccceccecesseneeeeeeeeeeeeseeneeeeseeneeeeeseeneeenseeeeeennes 11 4 3 Working with the Domain Editor ccccesseneeeseeeneeeeeeeneeeeseeneeeeeseeneesnseeeeeeenseeneeenees 13 5 Using the Space Tool 2s icocinss sous cess ccssie cece cs cesses ccecaccnscensiceccecsccnscenaacnscets 16
5. simple or xml communications strategy Writing a suitable Communications Strategy can provide other message transport routes More details are available in the X Developer Guide 9 2 Custom World State Viewer and I X Map Tool It is possible to replace the simple table view used for the current world state state viewer class StateViewTable default Viewers that show the state information clustered into the various objects or process products being handled and giving their attributes and values in a convenient form can be provided Graphical images of the process products can be added where required This could include map based data to show the position of the objects One example of a custom world state viewer is a Map Tool based on BBN s OpenMap BBN 2003 This is provided as an add on that may be added into any I X application that requires it 22 10 References Allsopp D Beautement P Bradshaw J M Durfee E H Kirton M Knoblock C A Suri N Tate A and Thompson C W 2002 Coalition Agents Experiment Multi Agent Co operation in an International Coalition Setting Special Issue on Knowledge Systems for Coalition Operations KSCO IEEE Intelligent Systems June 2002 BBN 2003 OpenMap http openmap bbn com Fraser J and Tate A 1995 The Enterprise Tool Set An Open Enterprise Architecture Proceedings of the Workshop on Intelligent Manufacturing Systems International Joint Con
6. system will first note the changes 2 Modifying the draft noting changes does not save to file so the next level of saving is to save the draft domain to file via toolbar button or File gt Save draft to file As with all editing applications it is recommended that this be done frequently to ensure that work is not lost Saving the draft domain to file will write the whole domain with all its constructs into a file in XML format This can later be loaded back into I DE for further editing or it can be accessed by other applications 3 The underlying base library is not changed by either of the above levels noting to draft or saving the draft to file The only way to update the base library is to publish 14 the draft domain via the toolbar button or the File gt Publish Draft menu command When this happens the changes are made to the base domain and these changes will be seen by any applications that have registered as listeners to this domain Note that publishing is always done for a whole domain and not for individual constructs Note also that publishing a domain will not save it to file but the same effect can be achieved by saving the draft domain to file immediately before or after publishing At that point the draft domain and the public domain are represented by the same XML structures It is a good idea to publish from time to time even if I DE is running in stand alone mode because it will make the editor more efficient
7. O Highest Priority iv Report Back Ref x l xl Activi Hi iori o Group Activity High Priority Report Type information n Constraint Normal Priori subordinates i PANAD ormaurnioriiy Recipient IX CFACC Report Low Priority aa Members O Message Lowest Priority la group Z IX Coalition SysAdmin ou A i Adaptive Agent Organizations Uf PCr ace IX Arabello HQ L DESELoe IX CFACC f IX CFMCC IX CFLCC p IX Arabello HQ IX CFMCC m Send Cancel IX Coalition SysAdmin v sena _cancei The l X Messenger tool is used to compose and send messages to other panels and agents Messages can be designated issues activities these with corresponding priorities or constraints or less formally as simple chat messages The tool also shows any chat messages received from other agents in the Transcript window You can send messages to your own panel me and there is a simple group sending facility which will be expanded in future releases 17 7 I Plan Coalition Search and Rescue Coordinator I Plan Tool Be O x File Planning statistics Steps taken 15 Alternatives posted 1 Alternatives picked 0 Alternatives remaining 1 Number of nodes 7 Longest node end path length 13 pian Replan Check Plan The facilities available in the I X Process Panels provide context sensitive options for the handing of issues such as the achievemen
8. committed already The relationships implicitly construct Action menu items for issues and activities on the parent Process Panel The relationships and the corresponding Action menu items are as follows Relationship Action Menu Item Superior Escalate to with report back Peer Pass to with report back Subordinate Delegate to with report back Service Invoke with report back Contact None None None Providing a description of the verbs associated with any agent via the Capabilities tab can be used to selectively show the agent in the Action menu only for the specified verbs If no verb association is provided it is assumed that all Superiors Peers and Subordinates can handle any item i e described using any verb It is expected that an external capabilities description is given for a Service or it will not appear on the menu at all For some communications strategies extra menu options are added into the I Space tool to provide services and facilities relevant to the specific nature of the communications strategies in use 16 6 Using the I X Messenger Tool Be File Transcript IX CFMCC at 28 Sep 02 11 19 18 a USS Colin Powell is being repositioned 7 Ix Coalition SysAdmin at 28 Sep 02 11 20 18 A Mobile Medevac Monitoring Agents are ready for dispatch I Compose Message activate Firestorm phase 2 ajj E z O Issue
9. considered to be a resource that can be invoked through the Action menu when the specified verbs are encountered If it is already in a defined relationship then it is treated as a restriction specification so the relevant Action menu entries i e escalate pass or delegate will only appear for those specific verbs rather than for any pattern verb use long ids boolean default true use hash ids boolean default false allow random device boolean default false send received reports boolean default true 24 Specify whether or not to send a received report when a panel receives an item Can be turned off if this causes problems for the recipient which may not be an I X Process Panel IP2 Domain Library library directory pathname URL syntax for backwards compatibility with versions 3 0 and earlier this can also be called domain library A directory can be specified which will be used as the location for saving or loading files via a file browser By default this will be the current directory domain resource s filename or URL syntax comma separated One or more domain files can be loaded when a panel starts up These can be in OWL owl RDF rdf XML xm1 or Lisp 1sp formats A resource can be a URL a filename for an existing file or the name of a resource that can be obtained from the agent s classpath by a ClassLoader Initial Panel Contents Initial Plan plan resourc
10. feed any Binni Coalition Normal Constraint Normal Priori au ny Recipient IX CF Report Low Priori z i z x Send State O Message Lowest Priority pattem SE Received status air defence JSTARS regressed 28 Sep 02 11 28 51 Report from IX CCO type information Elephants in Binni Safari Park are bei ELEC ongoing 28 Sep 02 11 29 19 Report from IX CCO type information Firestorm mission plans adjusted Kere Event and Process Panel ix i Based on I X Technology 8 E Coaltion forces maritime Component Commander TE File New Tools Test A Issues _ Description Annotations Priorit Action _ help 1740 HMAS Coonawarra Note other reports done success Y Normal Activities _ Description Annotations Priority Action provide intel feed submarine Normal _deplay ASW Capable Ships li Normal 7 reposition shipping q Normal __move ships safety Normal _ move ships defence Normal move ships ASW Normal coordinate _plans Normal State Pattern Value Bi country USS Colin Powell jus country HMAS Coonawarra lAustralia i Event and Process Panel 4 IX CFMCC pased on Lx Technology 8 An X Process Panel supports a user or collaborative users in selecting and carrying out processes and creating or modifying process products Both processes and process products are abstractly considered to be made up of Nodes activities in a process or parts of a process product which may contain sub nodes thereby co
11. for any collaborative activity The l X research draws on earlier work on O Plan Tate et al 1998 2000 2002 lt I N OVA gt Tate 1996 the Enterprise Project Fraser and Tate 1995 Uschold et al 1998 and the Task Based Process Management Project Stader 2000 but seeks to make the framework generic and to clarify terminology simplify the approach taken and increase the re usability and applicability of the core ideas The I X research programme includes the following threads or work areas 1 I Core comprising the core architecture an underlying ontology for activity and processes termed lt I N C A gt Issues Nodes Constraints and Annotations and the terminology used to describe systems or applications built in the I X framework I P which are I X Process Panels used to support user tasks and cooperation I DE which is the I X Domain Editor which is itself an I X application but is also used to create and maintain the domain description process models and activity specifications used elsewhere 4 Plan which is the I X Planning System This is also used within P and other applications as it provides generic facilities for supporting planning process refinement process composition dynamic response to changing needs etc 5 l Views which are viewers for processes and products and which are employed in other applications of I X Views can be for a wide range of modalities and types of user 6 I
12. not because the tracing strategy gets parameters jabber and default xml Some strategy combinations won t work semantically despite being valid syntax For example you can t do dispatching xml simple because they both expect a name server on the same port but with different syntaxes for its messages Domain Editors Item Viewers and Map Tool domain editor class classname Possible values are currently ix iview DomainEditor default ix iview SimpleDomainEditor Select domain editor to use issue viewer class class activity viewer class class state viewer class class annotation viewer class class These parameters allow the default Issue Activity State or Annotation Viewer to be replaced with a custom viewer class For example the default State Viewer StateViewTable could be replaced with a custom class such as the Map Tool StateViewMap map properties pathname URL syntax map default icon pathname URL syntax map object icons pathname URL syntax map type icons pathname URL syntax The map properties parameter this parameter is required is a Java properties file used to configure the BBN OpenMap tool with the map to use the latitude longitude it originates at and various other properties The map initial state parameter allows for an initial world state to be specified which is loaded on start up of I P2 It is equivalent to a
13. the issues and activities on the main panel If you are logged on toa Jabber server and you know the JID of another online user who may be running a conventional Jabber client rather than an I X panel you can try communicating using the Messenger tool by typing their JID into the Recipient field adding some text to the Compose Message field and clicking Send if you do not know of any other online users you can still test your connection by sending a message to ix test jabber org this is an agent that simply responds with an acknowledgment of any message it receives The options in the Help menu provide more information about using I X Soon you ll be ready to learn more about I X and how to tailor it to your own applications 3 Using an I X Process Panel Issues Panel Tool Panels Activities Panel C Tool Menu Bar Tool Panels State Panel Constraints amp Product Status Annotations Panel Help Window Logo Panel An I X Process Panel I P shown schematically above contains a number of sub panels that describe e A set of issues to be handled e A set of activities to be performed e Current state information reflecting the current set of constraints to be respected This includes the status of a range of process products being created or manipulated by the processes e Annotations in the form of keyword value pairs The panel supports its user in handling issues deciding on a course of a
14. the root directory for an I X application using default start up scripts i e lt I X base directory gt apps lt app name gt I When providing command line arguments the It is just command line syntax is not part of the parameter name load is not a parameter It is syntax that says to load name value lines from a file More than one load may be specified no and not can negate the subsequent parameter which is written without the initial It is equivalent to giving the parameter the value false but can be used in cases where it would seem odd to explicitly state false Resources for parameters like domain plan and test menu can be specified by URLs file names or names of resources accessible via a class loader class loaders use forward slashes for this 28 Appendix B lt I N C A gt XML Message Formats An l X Process Panel can receive XML format messages from other agents or systems to give it issues to address activities to perform and reports to note A Test agent called I Test is provided to give a simple way to try this out The format of these messages is described separately 29 Appendix C Test Menu Setup Test menu Files To use a test menu file have a command line argument or props file entry test menu filename g ip2 test menu somedir test sequences xml The file contains a list each element describes a single entry on the test menu In outline the file ther
15. to show an activity s sub activities and the temporal relationships between them Other constraints and specifications cannot be viewed or edited using this view The user can add manipulate and delete the nodes and arcs to develop the task breakdown structures IX CFC Domain Editor joj x File Edit View Tools Help a nj a Tal aja Save Draft Publish Draft New Undo Note AEE if Name pattern n z Name Pattern gt impact_on_firestorm_area_laki consid agg node Delete Layout s0p conduct coalition mission conduct coalition_mission gt impact_on_firestarm_area_sw conside f gt no_impact_on_firestorm_area conside gt separate_forces_using_firestorm sepa sop assemble inteligence andt intellige sop collate intellligence collate intellig gt sop conduct coalition mission conduct 1 monitor C2 process 2 task refinement sop contirm receipt of s1mta confirm sop contirm receipt of s1m2b confirm sop confirm receipt of s1m3b confirm 3 initial planning 4 ongoing operations sop consider air coas consider Air CO sop consider joint operational coas co sop consider possible campaign coas sop consider possible opeations coas sop continuous inteligence updates c gt sop develop air estimate develop air e gt sop develop joint operationalestimate sop fuse intelligence fuse intelligence sop gather intelligence gather intelli
16. 6 Using the I X Messenger TOOI e tt tt tin ni ii ines 17 7 AM ol oe FU IPcerec Perr bere errr errr bere tere fee tere ETT 18 8 Creating your own I X Application ccceeeeeeeeeeeeeteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 19 8 1 Configuring Process Panel s cccccessecceceseeeeeeseeeseeeeseeeseseseeeseeeseaeseseseaeeeeeeseneeeeneaes 19 8 2 Advanced Tailoring icicc icccccicttccccesteeeceectesteeecceetcuescenessuectestewecceeee ecteseeuscerentuvecceeeedecese 20 8 3 Adding Handlers yseciecccccicceccsectigss secede cvsctteetespsxdie ci ENAK ccsecetersstancs cevseeedeseescesesssesnes ceeeeee 21 8 4 Creating your own I X Domain Process Library ccccesseeccseseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeneeneeeenes 21 9 Further ailoring eeee eer peer ener erste s Seerer se SP erere reenter rerSrseer renters sr srrrrr sree 22 9 1 Communications Strategy 2 cceeccessenneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesceeeeeeeseeneeesseeneeesseeeeensneenenenees 22 9 2 Custom World State Viewer and I X Map Tool cccsceseeeceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 22 10 Referentes cocaine nee ee 23 Appendix A I P Parameters ccccccccscscssessssssscssesessscesesesseseeesevenseseeeeenes 24 Appendix B lt I N C A gt XML Message Formats cccccceeessseeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 29 Appendix C Test Menu Setup cccccceecceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeneeeees 30 0 How To Use This Guide This document is intended to provide an introduction to the I X system its foundat
17. Edt sop confirm receipt ot s1m2b confirm Delete sop confirm receipt of s1m3b confirm f 1 genes sop consider air coas consider Air CO Nodes Sop consider joint operational coas co pirometra process f add 21 task refinement sop consider possible campaign coas _ sop consider possible opeations coas sop cantinuous intelligence updates c gt sop develop air estimate develop air e gt sop develop joint operational estimate 3 initial planning 4 ongoing operations Zi 5 intelligence updates z Edit Delete Orderings 9 end gt 4 begin sop fuse intelligence fuse intelligence Add sop gather intelligence gather intellige e gt sop initial planning initial planning D sop intelligence updates intelligence u Delete sop ongoing operations ongoing oper sop produce air operations pian prod gt sop produce jfacc air operations plan Add sop praduce oint campaign plan prod b sop produce jtfc campaign plan produ sop provide apportionment recommen Delete sop provide information on availability Conditions Effects Edit Other Constraints s0p provide intelligence i1b provide in sop provide jfacc dratt estimate s1m4b Add sop request information on availability Edit sop request intelligence report ita req sop request jtacc draft estimate reque pasai sop requet for apportionment reco
18. Faces which are underlying support utilities to allow for the creation of user interfaces User l Faces inter agent communications Communications I Faces and repository access Repository l Faces 7 l X Applications of the above work areas in a variety of domains These currently include a Coalition Operations CoAX b Emergency and Unusual Procedure Assistance Aid I Help Rescue c Support Desks Support d Multi Perspective Knowledge Modelling and Management AKT e Medical Best Practice Procedures or Protocols Medic f Natural Language Presentations of Procedures and Plans I Tel Collaborative Meeting and Task Support Space Room and I World h Intelligent Messaging Me 8 I X Student Projects which are deepening and refining a number of aspects of the I X research programme 9 I X Technology Transfer including work on standards committees especially for process plan activity and capability models 1 2 1 X Process Panels I P An I X Process Panel I P is designed to act as a workflow reporting and messaging catch all for its user It can act in conjunction with other panels for other users if desired e Can take ANY requirement to o Handle an issue o Perform an activity o Maintain a constraint o Note an annotation e Deals with these via o Manual user activity o Internal capabilities o External capabilities invoke or query o Reroute or delegate to other pa
19. create the process descriptions with the I X Domain Editor provided see section 4 It can be run on its own or can be called from within a Process Panel from the Tools menu Since the process descriptions can be saved in a simple XML format it is also possible to use any XML editor to change the descriptions if you wish The format of the XML is described separately Example domain models and refinements can be found in the apps isample domain library directory Variables begin with and can be used anywhere Unbound variables appear in the process panel and can be bound by the user of the panel and in later versions by external query capabilities The representation used is based on the lt I N OVA gt constraint representation of activity Tate 1996 21 9 Further Tailoring An l X Developer Guide is available with details on more ways to tailor I X Process Panels and systems Note that this usually involves programming extensions in Java 9 1 Communications Strategy l X Process Panels can also be used with any of a number of Communications Strategies Example strategies are provided for the DARPA CoABS Grid grid Institute of Human and Machine Cognition IHMC KAoS kaos Urzok et al 2004 Jabber XML framework jabber and the UK EPSRC sponsored Advanced Knowledge Technologies AKTBus akt Also provided is an adaptor for a simple direct link between panels possibly supported by asimple name server referred to as the
20. ction and performing activities maintaining awareness of the current state constraints process products etc and making annotations of various kinds ILP Icons Priority Action Status D gt Unfold A Highest Fold a Hih Normal Click for Details 2 Clickto Cemel w Click to Archive y Lowest Entries on panels can be expanded using information provided in the process library used by a panel or the entries can be passed between panels Right click on a line to get a context sensitive menu that describes operations you can perform on the entry Where relevant this includes the ability to pop up a window with more details of the entry or to expand or contract the display of some levels of hierarchically specified activities to send information about the entry to the Messenger tool for sending on to others perhaps in a modified form etc Activity Editor Process Panel Map Tool bes File New Tools Help Test Issues file Edit View Toots Help CAR alaia LT Description Annotations Priority I Action ea ran 2 cow u _ are country and sar resource 7 Normal am oa Actties mr y P fkmissions eemote m ata woda a J Description Annotations __ Priory _J___Action P ioac hospitabtookup res rescue F15 P
21. d return a message about how to use Java If you need to install Java you should download the Java Software Development Kit SDK from http java sun com in addition to the JVM this also contains a Java compiler and debugger useful if you then go on to develop code to extend the I X system for your own applications Alternatively ask your local computing support staff they should be able to help you install and run a JVM Download the I X distribution from http i x info This is packaged as a zip file Unpack this in a convenient location on your local system where it will create a single directory with all necessary files Go to this directory and then double click the ix exe icon MS Windows users or the IX Mac icon Apple Mac users or from a command line prompt call the ix application script Unix Linux and Mac OS X users This should start a basic l X Process Panel 4 Along with the panel a Jabber login window should now appear pictured below Jabber login Enter confirm your Jabber login details New account v Auto subscribe Priority G 0 5 10 15 20 e f you wish to simply run a stand alone panel you should click Cancel e f on the other hand you want to communicate with other l X panels and you already have a valid Jabber username and password you should enter these details along with the name of the Jabber server on which this name
22. dding world state effects entries into the panel The map type icons and map object icons parameters allow directories to be specified which contain icons to associate with various types of specific named objects that can be displayed A default icon is used if no specific named or type icon is available This default can itself be specified with the map default icon parameter Issue and Activity Handlers It is possible to add new issue and activity handlers at run time As with plans and domains there are 2 ways to do it either via a command line argument props file entry additional handers className className Or through an activity with the pattern add handlers className className 27 The reason for the language difference additional handlers vs add handlers is that the former is a declaration whereas the latter is an imperative Here a class name can be a full Java class name including package but classes in the packages that are expected to supply handlers can be given in the dash syntax style used in the XML e g test handler rather than say ix test TestHandler One use for this is during testing Some handlers will be only for testing purposes and now they can be used without having to define an Ip2 subclass But it also allows domain specific handlers to be added for demos etc General Notes Filenames and pathnames are relative to the current directory when an application is run This is usually
23. domain models can be augmented while a Process Panel is running e You can add appropriate Test menu entries see below A wide range of parameters can be specified to simply customise a range of things about each panel A properties file for a panel can specify most of these and can be set using e g ix ip2 Ip2 load config isample supervisor props For example the file config isample supervisor props contains such things as symbol name Supervisor display name Supervisor I X Process Panel logo line 1 Supervisor I X Process Panel logo line 2 Based on I X Technology logo image images isample logo gif domain domain library isample supervisor xml subordinates Operator You can also set one property individually when the Process Panel program is started using a command line argument such as display name myapp lt panel identifier gt The domain model including process descriptions available to the panel can be preloaded from a domain library file e g as in the case above which loads the isample supervisor xml file describing sample processes that the panel is then made aware of and can use to expand entries placed onto the panel The Test Menu It can be convenient to provide some example issues activities or other entries that can be added to a panel which could have come from other systems or panels It can also be convenient to provide messages that could be sent to other panels and agents This allows
24. e s filename or URL syntax comma separated One or more initial files can be provided to set up the panel contents and state Panel contents can be given in OWL owl RDF rdf XML xm1 or Lisp 1sp formats typically saved from a previous run of the panel Also files where each line is of the form Attribute ObjectName Value can be provided with file suffix init plan state to save namelist or for all default is none State information is normally not saved into a saved plan file You can save all state information by specifying plan state to save or else can select the initial keywords of those state patterns to save a comma separated list Test Menu test menu resource s filename or URL syntax comma separated One or more XML files can be provided to set the Test menu entries that appear in the top right corner of a process panel This can be convenient for testing and demonstrations IPC ipc strategyNam ipc class strategyName can be simple default or xml using built in support With suitable communications strategy add ons other strategies can be specified such as grid kaos jabber or akt See the javadoc for IPC get CommunicationStrategy String strategyName enqueue incoming messages boolean default false rename variables in input boolean default true Tells agent to rename any name variables in patterns in incoming issues and activities so that the
25. efore looks like this lt xml version 1 0 encoding UTF 8 gt lt list gt lt list gt Three types of entry are allowed TEST ITEM lt test item delay before INT gt lt menu text gt STRING lt menu text gt lt to name gt STRING lt to name gt lt contents gt SENDABLE lt contents gt lt test item gt TEST SEQUENCE lt test sequence gt lt menu text gt STRING lt menu text gt lt test items gt lt list gt TEST ITEM lt list gt lt test items gt lt test sequence gt TEST SEQUENCE GENERATOR lt test sequence generator initial delay INT delay between INT gt lt menu text gt STRING lt menu text gt lt template gt TEST ITEM lt template gt lt to names gt lt list gt lt list gt lt to names gt lt content strings gt lt list gt lt list gt lt content strings gt lt test sequence generator gt A SENDABLE is an issue activity constraint report or chat message Note that STRING valued fields such as menu text may be written as attributes instead of as elements if the string is sufficiently simple Test items sequences and sequence generators do not have to come from files They are ordinary Java objects that can also be constructed in Java However it is often more convenient to specify them in XML In each of the above syntaxes the menu text is a string that is displayed in the Test menu in the top right corner of an I X Proces
26. everts to its original form However all messages are actually sent by the GUI event thread just as in the normal operation of a panel The other thread exists only to control the timing Messages sent to me are given directly to the panel rather than going via the communications strategy 33
27. ference on Artificial Intelligence IJCAI 95 Montreal Canada August 1995 Potter S Tate A and Dalton J 2003 I X Task Support on the Semantic Web Poster Abstract Second International Semantic Web Conference ISWC 2003 Sanibel Island Florida October 2003 Stader J Moore J Chung P McBriar l Ravinranathan M Macintosh A 2000 Applying Intelligent Workflow Management in the Chemicals Industries in The Workflow Handbook 2001 L Fisher ed Published in association with the Workflow Management Coalition WfMC pp 161 181 Oct 2000 Tate A 1996 The lt I N OVA gt Constraint Model of Plans Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Planning Systems ed Drabble B pp 221 228 Edinburgh UK May 1996 AAAI Press Tate A 1998 Roots of SPAR in Special Issue on Ontologies Knowledge Engineering Review Vol 13 1 March 1998 Cambridge University Press Tate A 2000 lt I N OVA gt and lt I N CA gt Representing Plans and other Synthesized Artifacts as a Set of Constraints AAAI 2000 Workshop on Representational Issues for Real World Planning Systems at the National Conference of the American Association of Artificial Intelligence AAAI 2000 Austin Texas USA August 2000 Tate A 2003 lt I N C A gt an Ontology for Mixed initiative Synthesis Tasks Proceedings of the Workshop on Mixed Initiative Intelligent Systems MIIS at the Inte
28. ge gt sop initial planning initial planning I DE Graphical view 4 3 Building and Maintaining Libraries with I DE For a given application the user of an I X Process Panel will have access to the process model definitions in a particular domain library to support him or her in performing the task in hand The richness of the definitions in this domain will depend in part on the nature of the 13 task and the extent to which it can be codified and the extent to which it has been codified The codification and subsequent maintenance of process models is in effect a knowledge engineering task and the role of I DE is to support this exercise Realising that complex applications may demand complex process models and the task of modelling these might itself be complex and involve many revisions and alterations I DE unlike the Simple Editor imposes a particular regime on the saving and updating of domains The twin aims of this regime are on the one hand to try to ensure that the integrity of the base domain whose models may concurrently be in use in a Process Panel for instance is maintained by not admitting partial or provisional modifications while on the other hand allowing the modeller to regularly save changes to provide roll back points in the event of system crashes or second thoughts Accordingly when the user invokes I DE a draft copy of the current base domain is checked out and
29. ig temporal before lt noce end lt nade end D sop produce jtfc campaign plan produce CFC campaig O state condition patterns value s Wworid state effect lt pattern gt lt value gt sop provide apportionment recommendat provide apportionment Meng a t i lt type gt lt relation gt lt parameters gt sop provide ntormation on avallability or jprovide information on _ sop provide intenigence 1110 provide inteligence n sop provide facc urafeestimate sime provide CFACC dratt e Deiete _ 5op requestinformation on avallability or request information or croar I DE Domain left and Grammar right panels An editor panel may itself have different views that are used to display and edit the panel s constructs The activity panel has three such views e Minimal view a simplified version of the activity and its refinement The main simplification is that no constraints are shown This option provides an interface that is intended to be visually similar to that of the Simple Editor e Comprehensive view a view that can display and edit all of an activity s specification allowing the user to specify more complex temporal and world state condition effect constraints Other constraints such as spatial constraints or constraints on resources can also be specified using this view e Graphical view a graphical view that uses nodes and arcs
30. ilot sea burns 18 0 40 0 High ta i ree rien teeeet 1 select hospital selecthospital bums 1 2hospital Gahwad EF High Prepare _ sop choose hospital ch a eee ki country Arabetio O ssiccarssisebr ooaeea _lookup hospitals Finished 7 hospitals cons High loo hein tee f 7 sop sar mission simple tht select hospital 1 7hospital Gahwad EF m High bersi Bt i F select sar resource sea 2 countr Arabello High 2 select sar resource al 9 p r aran lookup sar resources sea Arabello __ High sacar se a notiy SAR Mission 0 select sar resource 3 sar resource High retical capably Gener atnan true D sop selecthospaats 1 s ee notify SAR Mission 001 3 sar resource 3 sar w High Peena Sereas th gt t medical capably m aa oe ae natty SAR notify SAR Mission 001 3 sar resource 1 ho High mesial capatty IntensneCare tre ct hospital matical capa adlgy tre D sop selectsarresource mica capacity Sur poy ue j on 9 790213 meem State Transcript e E Pattern i Value Oct 7 51 10 Ie CT ncoming actavity marrage fron vg fongtude ArabeloCoastquardCuter fess maxSpeed ArabelloCoastguardCutter 35Kmih type ArabelloCoastguardCutter cutter File Jabber altitude Bandar_Airport 10 Raimons y Niacin Dandan iina Masz Agent Relation impose Message eee Arabello SAR Subordinate v i USMarineHelicopter pilot Key value Australi SAR S
31. ions and its tools to give a users manual allow you to apply I X to your task and to provide some guidelines for tailoring I X to your particular task domain and environment Section 1 gives an introduction to the motivation behind the I X project and the facilities it provides its users Section 2 provides a quick start guide those eager to try the I X tools should skip to this section The subsequent five sections describe the use of individual I X tools in greater detail e Section 3 describes the use of P Process Panels e Section 4 covers the use of DE the domain and process editor e Section 5 explains the use of the Space agent organisation and relationship tool e Section 6 describes the use of Messenger instant messaging tool e Section 7 discusses the use of Plan an Al activity planning tool Sections 8 and 9 outline the steps necessary to move beyond a basic use of the I X tools by tailoring them for particular applications Finally Appendices A B and C provide handy reference information 1 Introduction to l X and I X Process Panels I P 1 1 I X Research Programme l X is a multi faceted research programme whose goal is to produce a well founded system that allows humans and computers to cooperate in the creation or modification of some artefact This artefact may be a plan a design or a physical entity in other words l X supports synthesis tasks Beyond this it can also be used to provide a framework
32. is registered and then click on Login If successful the name of your panel should be updated to show your username e Finally if you want to communicate but do not have a username then you can attempt to create a new account through this window you need to type in the name of a Jabber server that allows new accounts to be created jabber org for example and enter a new username and password taking care to remember your choices and tick the New account box Now click on Login if the new account has been successfully created the name of your panel should now be updated with your new username However if the attempt fails perhaps because the username you chose is already in use you will see an error message and will be prompted to try different values To learn more about Jabber Instant Messaging see http www jabber org 5 You are now free to explore the different I X facilities From the New menu you can create new issues activities constraints and annotations and see these displayed on the panel and once you ve created a plan save this through the File menu From the Tools menu you can start a Domain Editor and try creating your own process models You can start a simple HTML Viewer for accessing directly local I X HTML resources You can use the I Space tool to enter the names of other agents and your relationships with them and see how this affects your options for handling
33. is a further option for users without access to either the Simple Editor or DE or who wish to make simple amendments to their models the fact that the domains created by these tools are saved as XML format files means they can be modified using a dedicated XML editing tool such as the freely available Microsoft XML Notepad see http msdn microsoft com xml notepad intro asp or even a standard text editor J coan o EJ Eile Edit fools Help an oleju e a Flos ellela Edt Search Mde SGML Help Vales 0 encoding UTF 8 2 gt 15 5 Using the I Space Tool File Relations Agent Relation Adaptive Agent Organizations Service SS IX Arabello HQ Subordinate v IX CFACC Subordinate v IX CFLCC Subordinate v IX CFMCC Subordinate v IX Coalition SysAdmin Subordinate v IX UNSGO Superior x Contact Ms Commit Undo Uncommitted Changes The I Space tool allows for the management of the organisational relationships of the current panel referred to as me to other panels agents and external services New agent names can be typed into the text field at the bottom Existing agents or panels can have their relationships altered The Commit button is used to inform the process panel of any addition or changes to the set of relationships with existing entries You can undo any changes made to the I Space table that have not been
34. mbol name by default also becomes the ipc name If not provided the default symbol name is set to lt user name gt lt machine name gt display name text Note that display name is set to lt symbol name gt Process Panel if not explicitly set I P2 classic boolean Use alternative simpler interface for table views and other user interface elements descriptions column width integer annotations column width integer For classic viewers only IP2 Visual Appearance metal theme secondary3 colour note secondary3 not secondary 3 may alter in future font increment integer The relative font size for text buttons and labels in I X Process Panels e g 2 4 or 2 Odd numbers e g 1 or 3 may not have bold fonts installed on all systems ogo line 1 text logo line 2 text logo image pathname URL syntax frame size WIDTHxHEIGHT The initial width and height of the process panel in the form WIDTHXHEIGHT e g 800x400 l Space superiors namelist subordinates namelist peers namelist contacts namelist external capabilities name verb Note that namelist is a list of names of other process panels or external agent resources A namelist is comma separated and the list cannot contain spaces external capabilities specifies the verbs associated with any panel name or external agent name If the panel or agent is not in a defined relationship then it is
35. mm Gorman sop transmit jtfc mission directive to jfa sop transmit jtfcs intent to jfac transmi x I DE Advanced mode Activity panel The main window of the Domain Editor contains several editor sub panels for editing different aspects or constructs of the domain View gt Windows or choose the appropriate tab or card depending on selected Panel Style e Domain panel used to edit global information about the domain itself e g the domain name e Activity panel used to edit information about activities and how they break down into sub activities refinement e Grammar panel which currently only shows the patterns that are in use in the domain 12 Ix CFC Domain Editor iojxi File Edit View Tools Help D a Save Draft Publish Draft New Undo Note sini x File Edit View Tools Help Domain i Grammar ig if Activity Grammar a ul ela Name Draft Publish Draft New Undo Note ICoax CFC MAy Grammar Refinements F TA Issue Patterns Name Dlimpact_on_frestarm_area_laki consider varg lali_sat b impact_on_firestorm_area_sw consider 2arg sw_regi b no_impact_on_firestorm_area consider 2arg Placatio Diseparate_forces_using_firestarm separate 2alpha and 5 _ sop assemble intelligence and intelligence assemble informa
36. nels or agents escalate pass or delegate o Plan and execute a composite of these capabilities expand e Receives reports and messages and where possible interprets them to o Understand current status of issues activities constraints and annotations o Understand current world state especially status of process products o Help control the situation e Copes with partial knowledge Three example process panels are shown in the figure below These panels are from a demonstration of agent systems within a military Coalition context part of the Coalition Agents eXperiment CoAX Allsopp et al 2001 2002 gt coaition orce commander Er File New Tools Test Issues Description Annotations Prio Action help 1 4U HMAS Coonawarra damage severe Note other reports HMAS Coonawarra Situ High United Nations Special Representative to Binni File Ti ee ie a Compose Message Activities Description Annotations Priority Action find may utility resource ASW Sensor Normal 7 interconnect IX CFMCC as superior to IX Arab Normal i ae connect IX lt CFMCC superior Normal O Issue O Highest Priori h 5 ity L Report Back Ref connect IX Arabello H subordinate Normal O Activity O High Priority Report Type information allow intel
37. nstituting a hierarchical description of the process or product The nodes are related by a set of detailed Constraints of various kinds A set of ssues is associated with the processes or process products to represent unsatisfied requirements problems raised by analysis or critique and so on Processes and process products in I X are represented in the lt I N C A gt Issues Nodes Constraints Annotations model of synthesised artefacts Tate 2000 2003 2 Quick Start Guide This section describes the quickest way to run an I X Process Panel and begin exploring the capabilities of I X This approach uses the Jabber instant messaging protocol for communicating with other users panels for this you will need to have an account on a Jabber server step Error Reference source not found below However this is not necessary a panel can be invoked in a stand alone mode but of course in order to take full advantage of the potential of I X as a collaborative environment you will eventually want to communicate with other panels though not necessarily using Jabber 1 Since it is written in the Java programming language to use I X you will need to have a Java interpreter the Java Virtual Machine JVM installed on your computer and its location specified in the value of your path environment variable To test whether you have a JVM installed type java at command line prompt if it is correctly installed this shoul
38. p and in that directory rename Isample java to be Myapp java or whatever you wish Delete the compiled class files included there Edit this renamed file to change the package name from isample to myapp Change the class name Isample to Myapp wherever it occurs Change any strings that refer to Sample to My App as you wish You can provide a customised state viewer for panels A description of how to do this is in the X Developer Guide Recompile the Myapp java code with the compile script provided In the directory scripts win and unix alter the script names and script contents as necessary to refer to the new name rather than the basic ix ip2 Ip2 class or the custom isample Isample class 20 8 3 Issue and Activity Handlers The I X Process Panels have a number of handlers that can process issues and activities in specific ways e Escalate Pass and Delegate One type of handling is to use the options in the Action menu reroute the issue or activity to other users or panels These handlers are defined using information supplied in the Space description of Superiors Peers and Subordinates for the Process Panel this may be done using the Space tool see section 5 via the command line or using the props file for the panel e Invoke External agents defined as being a Service will appear on the Action as possible handlers when their capability verb that matches the verb of the current issue activity Services a
39. perspectives and views onto models The use of I DE will now be described I DE is currently the default domain editor in I X appendix A describes how it can be replaced by the Simple Editor for applications where this is adequate I DE is also available as a stand alone application for the maintenance of domain and process libraries 4 2 Using the I DE Domain Editor Tool The main I DE Window provides access to most functions via its menu bar and access to the most commonly used ones via its tool bar The Menu Bar The menu bar has 5 standard menus 1 File for closing the Domain Editor and for file access open save All functions here manipulate the domain as a whole not individual constructs 2 Edit for manipulating the current construct i e the construct that is currently shown in the Domain Editor s panel 3 View for changing which panel is shown in the Domain Editor and if applicable for changing which view is shown in that panel see Views below 4 Tools for additional support like consistency checks etc 11 5 Help for access to this manual other help and information about the application The Tool Bar The tool bar provides access to the most commonly used functions via buttons All these functions are also available via the menu bar with the image alongside the menu item being that used on the corresponding toolbar button The toolbar can be switched on and off via the Toolbar check box in the View men
40. presented for modification Any edits saved using I DE are saved only to this draft domain with the base domain remaining unaltered until the edits are explicitly published by the I DE user In this manner users can develop a domain by creating and modifying processes and when they are satisfied that their alterations constitute a coherent body worthy of addition to the base domain can then confirm these changes by publishing them 7 Close _ Editor f Modify Modify o Draft Draft New domain No Yes o Publish To application From application PR Open domain Save or Save As Saved Domain Model Saving and Reverting To implement this regime there are 3 levels of saving 1 When a construct has been edited initially these changes may be made only to the interface itself and not to the underlying draft construct in memory In order to transfer changes from the interface into the construct in the draft domain the user has to modify the draft i e Edit gt Note Domain Activity Grammar into Draft n addition at relevant times the system will automatically update the draft for the user so as to keep the draft domain in step with what is shown in the interface If a user has edited a construct and without noting changes to the draft then decides to switch constructs views or panels or else decides to save or publish the draft domain the
41. re specified using the Capabilities tab of the Space tool or specifying their external capabilities in the panel props file e Connect Activities of the form connect lt agent name gt lt relationship type gt e g connect john peer have a connect handler that sets the appropriate entries in Space automatically See section 5 for details of the available relationship types e Others may be available You can check this via a panel s menus using Help gt About Syntax So in order to impose some organisational structure on the domain and state the existence of Service agents the application builder may wish to declare the appropriate relationships within a props file and distribute this to all panel users within the environment In addition advanced I X users can code their own handlers for specific applications 8 4 Creating your own I X Domain Process Library Each l X Process Panel can make use of a domain model or process library which describes ways in which issues can be handled or high level activities can be broken down into more detailed activities which may then be performed A panel can operate without such process descriptions but becomes more useful and helpful if it has such knowledge A process library can be loaded when a panel is started up and additional process descriptions can be provided while it is running indeed they can be saved at any stage to amend the stored version for later preloading You can
42. rnational Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence IJCAI 03 Acapulco Mexico August 2003 Tate A Dalton J and Levine J 1998 Generation of Multiple Qualitatively Different Plan Options Fourth International Conference on Al Planning Systems AIPS 98 Pittsburgh PA USA June 1998 Tate A Dalton J and Levine J 2000 O Plan a Web based Al Planning Agent AAAI 2000 Intelligent Systems Demonstrator in Proceedings of the National Conference of the American Association of Artificial Intelligence AAAI 2000 Austin Texas USA August 2000 Tate A Levine J Dalton J and Nixon A 2002 Task Achieving Agents on the World Wide Web in Creating the Semantic Web Fensel D Hendler J Liebermann H and Wahlster W eds MIT Press 2001 Uszok A Bradshaw J M Jeffers R Johnson M Tate A Dalton J and Aitken S 2004 Policy and Contract Management for Semantic Web Services AAAI Spring Symposium Stanford University California USA March 2004 Uschold M King M Moralee S and Zorgios Y 1998 The Enterprise Ontology in Special Issue on Ontologies Knowledge Engineering Review Vol 13 1 March 1998 Cambridge University Press 23 Appendix A I P Parameters IXAgent debug Boolean Set to true for more detailed diagnostics in the Java console window ipc name nam ipc name is essentially a synonym for symbol name symbol name text Note that sy
43. s Panel For a test item only any occurrence of Sto in the menu text string will be replaced by the value of the same test item s 30 to name This is not done for a sequence because the messages in a sequence might be to different destinations A to name is the symbol name of the agent the test item s contents should be sent to The delay before in a test item is the number of milliseconds to wait before sending the contents Delay before defaults to 0 Note that within the SENDABLE test item contents you can specify a sender id if you wish it to look like an item came from that agent or panel The syntax for SENDABLE items is included in an earlier section Here is an example lt test item menu text Give Sto a report back example issue to name me gt lt contents gt lt issue priority high report back yes gt lt pattern gt lt list gt lt symbol gt note lt symbol gt lt string gt sample note text lt string gt lt list gt lt pattern gt lt issue gt lt contents gt lt test item gt That test item would appear in the Test menu as Give me a report back example issue and when selected would send the panel an issue with priority high report back yes etc Here is a test item that sends a report after a delay of 4 seconds lt test item menu text Send to a single report with a delay to name me delay before 4000 gt lt contents gt lt report report type informa
44. s from non I X panel jabber clients and e to distinguish I X panel clients belonging to a particular I X cluster from other l X panels Caution should be applied when setting this parameter to anything other than its default value jabber presence keyword e g Online jabber allow queuing boolean default false Can be set to true to allow asynchronous communications between panels that are not on line at the same time queuing is provided by jabber servers The default mode false will indicate a communications failure if the target recipient resource is not on line or if no resource is specified the target user has no on line resources at all In the latter case if no resource is specified and an I X Process Panel is identified among the target user s on line jabber clients then this Panel will be the preferred destination for the message jabber autosubscribe boolean default true If jabber autosubscribe is set to true any incoming request from another jabber user for subscription to the presence of the current I X user will be automatically accepted and a corresponding subscription request generated and sent in response If jabber autosubscribe is set to false then any incoming subscription request is ignored and will be re submitted the next time the current user starts a jabber client Parameterised Communication Strategies Some communication strategies take other strategies as parameters The synta
45. so be extended to provide a plan repair capability should activities fail during execution or the environment dynamically change in unforeseen ways Coalition Search and Rescue Coordinator Plan Check Bi 0 x File xecuting begin_of ltem Activity pick up and transport pilotA red sea Gahwa ums Condition p v type Gahwad El hospital Condition p v country Gahwad El Arabello Condition p v location Gahwad El gahwad el lat long Condition p v type red sea location Executing begin_of Itern Activity us army helicopter service gahwad el latlong red sea Arabella tq Condition p v type gahwad el lat long location A Condition p v type red sea location Condition p v type Arabello country i Executing end_of ltem Activity us army helicopter service gahwad el lat long red sea Arabello to He Effect p v type burns injury Effect p v type pilot Aj person Executing end_of ltem Activity pick up and transport pilo A red sea Gahwad El burns Executing begin_of Item Activity treat injury pilot A Gahwad El burns Condition p v country Gahwad El Arabello Executing begin_of ltem Activity arabello hospital service pilot A burns to string O Condition p v type pilot Aj person Condition p v ttype burns injury 18 8 Creating your own I X Application A single Process Panel or a small cluster of panels in Superior Peer or Subordinate relationships to one another can be quickly adapted to a ne
46. t of stated objectives the performance of activities and the satisfaction of constraints A simple Al Planner l Plan is available as a tool to propose alternative ways in which activities on the panel can be expanded l Plan can perform hierarchical partial order composition of plans from a library of plan schemas or Standard Operating Procedures This library can be augmented during planning either using a simple activity details interface to add in specific ways to expand a given activity intended for users familiar with the application domain but not Al planning techniques or with a more comprehensive graphical domain editor I DE see section 4 Grammars and lexicons for the activities in the domain and the objects manipulated by them are built automatically during domain editing to assist the user l Plan can check that conditions are satisfied or introduce activities to achieve them it can select consistent bindings for a set of variables in the current plan and can check or impose temporal constraints between activities Plan cannot currently reason about resources spatial constraints or metric time constraints Future developments of l Plan will provide more assistance with a How do do this option under the Action menu which will be able to account for other concurrent items on the panel and account for mutual satisfaction of open variables unsatisfied world state conditions and other constraints I Plan will al
47. tion sop collate intelligence collate intelligence gt sop conduct coalitian mission conduct coalitian_mis _ sap ronfirm receipt of stmia confirm receipt of S1M sop contirm receipt of s1m20 contirm receipt of S1M _ sop connrm receipt or s1m30 contirm receipt or S1M sop consider air coas consider Air COAs Sop consider joint operational coas consider joint operatio Node Patterns 2 panel sop consider possible campalgrn coas_ consider possible cam 29 panel Prel lassemble information and intelligence Sop consider possible opeations coas consider possible apet lasses damage situation sop continuous intelligence updates continuous inteligence laeceee situation casualties gt sop develap air estimate develop air estimate lasses _situation b sop develop joint operationalestimate develop joint operatior lassign nelper Ptype Pid damage Pseverity Plat Pong sop fuse intelligence fuse intelligence lauthorise firestorm mission ga sop gather intelligence gather intelligence avoid arg firestorm_area gt sop tnitial planning initial planning collate intemgence b sop intelligence updates intelligence updates commit sop ongoing operations ongoing operations conduct coalition_mission Pr confirm receipt of S1M1a message S1M1b so p produce air cperations plan produce air operation I Disop produce jfacc air operations plan produce CFACC air op Constraint Patterns _ sop prnduce joint campaign plan produce joint campa
48. tion text Here s some information gt lt contents gt lt test item gt A test sequence contains a list of test items The menu text of those items is ignored and needn t be specified The test sequences own menu text appears in the Test menu When the test sequence is selected from the Test menu it processes the list of test items in order For each item it waits for the item s delay before milliseconds and then sends the item s contents to the agent named by the item s to name This allows a sequence to send messages to a variety of different destinations By using delay before values of 0 it is possible to get several messages to be sent almost at once Each item in a test sequence may have a different type of contents That makes it possible to send an issue to one agent a report to a second and so forth However in some cases all of the items in a sequence will have certain things in common and then it may be possible to use a test sequence generator A test sequenc generator contains a single test item that is used as a template The menu text of that item is ignored and needn t be specified but all other fields may be significant A test sequence may contain either a list of to names or a list of content strings but not both If it contains a list of to names a sequence is constructed by making a copy of 31 the template for each of the to names replacing the copy s to name each time The res
49. u Moving the mouse over a toolbar button will after a while display a tool tip text that gives a brief explanation of the button s function Views The window can display in one of three styles single tabbed and card style The style can be changed via the options through the View gt Panel Style menu In addition there are several other View options for changing the appearance of I DE DE can be run in two modes View gt Editor Mode e Simple mode This mode is for simple editing only as it lacks the more sophisticated editing functions The simple mode restricts the user to the single display style and minimal view described below e Advanced mode In Advanced mode the user can amongst other things place more complex ordering precondition and effect constraints on the steps of a process model IX CFC Domain Editor lolx File Edit View Tools Help a D j aja a 2 3 Save Draft Publish Draft New Undo Note 11 Name pattern Name b impact_on_firestorm_area_laki consid sop conduct coalition mission blimpact_on_firestorm_area_sw conside no_impact_on_firestorm_area conside Eater b separate_forces_using_firestorm sepa onuuct coalition mission sop assemble intelligence and intellige Issues sop collate intelligence collate intellig aaa gt sop conduct coalition mission conduct sop confirm receipt of s1m 1a confirm
50. ubordinate v Binn CFC Superior X O re p_ CMUNobtyer jabber orgHome Serce X Co EF Ga0 SAR Subordinate v m UK SAR Subordinate v lanning statistics E l Plan SEAR Seo T teps taken 15 hospitals Senice Lad Message Lowest Priority leratives posted 1 pore smatives picked 0 resources Service zj matives remaining 1 Contact Messenger umber of nodes 7 I I ongest node end path length 13 Fi a Space Commit Unda Uncommitted Changes pron repan _ creck Pan A Tools menu is available to make accessible the following A domain or process library editor to view edit or add to the list of process descriptions which may be used to expand entries on the process panel DE see A tool to view and change the relationships of the current panel to others Space An instant messaging or chat tool to communicate in free format or the encouraged lt I N C A gt structured forms with other I X Process Panels and other systems intelligent messaging or semantically augmented messaging Messenger see e section 4 e see section 5 e section 6 e Other tools can be added to l P for example a Map Tool as the application demands In addition an Al planner is available to try to construct alternative ways of performing current activities and achieving objectives Plan see section 7 10 4 X Domains and the I X Domain Editor I DE 4 1 Editing Domains O
51. ulting sequence will send essentially the same message to a series of agents If there is a list of content strings instead the sequence contains one copy for each of the content strings with the main contents of the copy replaced by the corresponding content string suitably interpreted This sequence will send a series of similar messages of the same type issue report or whatever to a single agent the agent specified by the to name of the template The interpretation of a content string depends on the class of the template s contents If the template contains an issue or activity the content string is treated as a pattern and parsed in the usual way with names being variables etc if the template contains a report or chat message the content string is placed in the object s text field Constraints are not yet supported although they may appear in ordinary test sequences The test items in the generated sequence have delay before values determined as follows If the generator specifies an initial delay it becomes the delay before of the first item in the generated sequence If the generator specifies a delay between it becomes the delay before of all subsequent items in the sequence Otherwise the template s delay before is preserved Here is an example that when selected will send a series of chat messages lt test sequence generator initial delay 0 delay between 2000 menu text Send me som xample chat messages gt
52. verview The process model descriptions used by I X Process Panels are kept in domain libraries These can be loaded when a panel is started and can be augmented dynamically by the user of the panel There are two editing tools available to I X users to help them create and manage their own domains the Simple Editor and the I X Domain Editor I DE These are introduced below The current editor may be invoked from a Process Panel by selecting Tools gt Domain Editor Coalition Force Commander Domain Editor File Edit View Refinement Name sop conduct coalition mission Pattern conduct coalition_mission Expansion monitor C2 process task refinement initial planning ongoing operations intelligence updates Constraints Temporal Activities are Parallel Sequential Other Annotations Define Refinement Delete Refinement clear Simple Editor interface Basic Editing The Simple Editor The process panels contain a simple form based domain and process editor Shown above This allows simple task breakdowns to be specified along with a temporal constraint that the sub steps should be either sequentially ordered or performed in parallel A More Sophisticated Editor DE To create richer descriptions of process models and allow more sophisticated management of domain libraries the user of I X will want to use I DE I DE is a more powerful domain and process editor and offers multiple
53. w application We will later support more dynamic and adaptable combinations of multiple panels in more complex organisational structures which we call Spaces but much of the support required for this is not yet sufficiently generic to provide in an easily altered form 8 1 Configuring Process Panels An example l P application is provided in the apps isample directory which can be copied and adapted as follows e Copy the whole isample directory to become a new directory with a name of your choice e g apps myapp e In the sub directory config alter the props properties file names and contents of these files to tailor display names and labels used on the Process Panels e You can modify the ways in which the panel Actions are set up using Space relationships such as Superior Peer and Subordinate e Inthe directory images add in any logo or logos for panels as you wish Replacing the logo images isample logo gif will mean the default logo is amended without further changes e Tailoring a panel to a new application usually involves providing a suitable domain model that describes ways in which activities can be refined into more detailed sub activities for that application Domain models can be represented in XML format although a Lisp oriented format is also available and for l Sample Process Panels are in the domain library directory Domain editors are provided to create or amend domain models see section 4 and
54. x is lt strategy gt lt name gt lt name gt lt strategy gt lt strategy gt A parameterised strategy typically provides a wrapper around inner strategies specified by its parameters The ones provided are tracing strategy Prints an XML description of the message contents when a message is sent or received by the specified inner strategy separate stategy Creates a dummy I X agent for the inner strategy to use This protects the main I X agent from some operations a communications strategy might perform such as changing the agent s symbol name separate is often used together with dispatching dispatching strategy strategy Allows different inner strategies to be used for communicating with different agents One of the arguments must be prefixed by default Strategies are assigned to agents as follows 26 If a message is received from an agent A via strategy S then A gets S as its strategy otherwise a tab in the Space tool can be used to assign strategies explicitly Examples tracing xml dispatching jabber default xml tracing xml dispatching jabber xml default tracing xml dispatching separate jabber default kaos The notation for communications strategy combinations is fairly general but not quite to the point of allowing parentheses for grouping For example dispatching tracing jabber default tracing xml works but tracing dispatching jabber default xml does
55. y do not conflict with any existing variables in the receiving agent Default Simple and XML Communication Strategies port number Tells the agent to use a specific port number rather than to ask the underlying operating system to allocate a free one This is especially useful in environments with a firewall host hostname Used to tell the agent what to call the machine it is running on when the default name will be incorrect The default is the name returned by InetAddress getLocalHost getHostName run nam eyo GaN de Tells the agent to run a name server name server 25 nam server servernam sport no name server Tells the agent whether to use a name server to look up the addresses of other agents and if so what host and port to connect to The name server servername port defaults to localhost 5555 Jabber Communication Strategy jabber server hostname eg jabber org or jabber aiai ed ac uk jabber username usernam jabber port 5222 jabber password password jabber resource resource I X by default jabber priority integer positive integer 1 by default The jabber port should not be altered lightly Likewise you should usually leave the jabber resource at its default value The assumption is made that all other panels with which this panel will communicate will share the same resource name Hence the resource name is used for two purposes e to distinguish I X panel jabber client
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