Service-Oriented Framework for Human Task Support and Automation

Due to increasingly demanding requirements for business flexibility and agility, automation of end-to-end industrial processes has become an important topic. Business process execution needs to support automated tasks execution as well as human tasks. In this paper we show that for certain types of human tasks it is relevant to consider their further automation. We propose a service-oriented architectural framework for human task execution, which improves their execution by automating and semi-automating decision making based on ontologies and agent technology. The approach is generic and can be used for any type of industrial or industrial support business process. As a proof-of-concept we have developed a system providing the above-described support for human task intensive business processes in an electric power transmission company, which has shown considerable improvements in the efficiency of human tasks.

[1]  Andreas Abecker,et al.  Toward a Technology for Organizational Memories , 1998, IEEE Intell. Syst..

[2]  Lorne Olfman,et al.  Organizational Memory , 1998, Proceedings of the Thirty-First Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[3]  Mark S. Fox,et al.  An organizational ontology for enterprise modeling , 1998 .

[4]  Kjeld Schmidt,et al.  Computer Supported Cooperative Work: New challenges to systems design , 1999 .

[5]  Vladislav Rajkovic,et al.  Multi-Attribute Decision Modeling: Industrial Applications of DEX , 1999, Informatica.

[6]  Manfred A. Jeusfeld,et al.  Organizational Memory supported Workflow Management , 1999, Wirtschaftsinformatik.

[7]  Andreas Abecker,et al.  Organizational Memory: Knowledge Acquisition, Integration, and Retrieval Issues , 1999, XPS.

[8]  Olivier Corby,et al.  Methods and tools for corporate knowledge management , 1999, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[9]  Nicholas R. Jennings,et al.  Applied Artificial Intelligence: An International Journal , 2022 .

[10]  Ulrich Reimer,et al.  EULE: A Knowledge-Based System to Support Business Processes , 2000, Knowl. Based Syst..

[11]  Agostino Poggi,et al.  Developing Multi-agent Systems with JADE , 2007, ATAL.

[12]  J. Leon Zhao,et al.  Workflow Automation: Overview and Research Issues , 2001, Inf. Syst. Frontiers.

[13]  M. Brian Blake.  Agent-based Workflow Configuration and Management of On-line Services , 2001 .

[14]  S. Krishnan,et al.  2 XLANG : Web Services for Business Process Design , 2002 .

[15]  David M. Eyers,et al.  An asynchronous rule-based approach for business process automation using obligations , 2002, RULE '02.

[16]  Agostino Poggi,et al.  Multi-Agent Corporate Memory Management System , 2002, Appl. Artif. Intell..

[17]  Ian Horrocks,et al.  Digital Libraries and Web-based Information Systems , 2003, Description Logic Handbook.

[18]  Ian Horrocks,et al.  From SHIQ and RDF to OWL: the making of a Web Ontology Language , 2003, J. Web Semant..

[19]  Barbara Messing,et al.  An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems , 2002, Künstliche Intell..

[20]  Andreas Abecker,et al.  Agent Technology for Distributed Organizational Memories: The Frodo Project , 2003, ICEIS.

[21]  X. Qi.  AGENT-BASED WORKFLOW COORDINATION FOR SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT , 2003 .

[22]  H. Lan,et al.  SWRL : A semantic Web rule language combining OWL and ruleML , 2004 .

[23]  Gerd Wagner,et al.  Towards radical agent-oriented software engineering processes based on AOR modeling , 2004 .

[24]  Gerd Wagner,et al.  Towards radical agent-oriented software engineering processes based on AOR modeling , 2004, Proceedings. IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology, 2004. (IAT 2004)..

[25]  Dirk Krafzig,et al.  Enterprise SOA: Service-Oriented Architecture Best Practices , 2004 .

[26]  Matjaz B. Juric,et al.  Business process execution language for web services , 2004 .

[27]  Ieee Xplore,et al.  IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics , 2005 .

[28]  François Jammes,et al.  Service-oriented paradigms in industrial automation , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics.

[29]  Ying Huang,et al.  Modeling e-marketplaces with multi-agents Web services , 2005, 11th International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Systems (ICPADS'05).

[30]  M. Brian Blake,et al.  Agent-oriented compositional approaches to services-based cross-organizational workflow , 2005, Decis. Support Syst..

[31]  Andrew Kusiak,et al.  XML-based modeling of corporate memory , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics - Part A: Systems and Humans.

[32]  Amit P. Sheth,et al.  An overview of workflow management: From process modeling to workflow automation infrastructure , 1995, Distributed and Parallel Databases.

[33]  Tiemei Irene Zhang,et al.  A framework of incorporating software agents into SOA , 2005 .

[34]  Stavros A. Koubias,et al.  Vertical integration of enterprise industrial systems utilizing web services , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics.

[35]  Jan Mendling,et al.  Business Process Execution Language for Web Services , 2006, EMISA Forum.

[36]  Richard Zurawski.  Integration Technologies for Industrial Automated Systems (Industrial Information Technology) , 2006 .

[37]  Saqib Ali,et al.  A novel approach toward integration of rules into business processes using an agent-oriented framework , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics.

[38]  Raheel Ahmad,et al.  Expert Systems: Principles and Programming , 2006, Scalable Comput. Pract. Exp..

[39]  Francisco Curbera,et al.  Web Services Business Process Execution Language Version 2.0 , 2007 .

[40]  Lien Fu Lai,et al.  A knowledge engineering approach to knowledge management , 2007, Inf. Sci..

[41]  Fabio Bellifemine,et al.  Developing Multi-Agent Systems with JADE (Wiley Series in Agent Technology) , 2007 .

[42]  M.B. Juric,et al.  Agents and People Activities in Web-services based Business processes , 2007, 2007 Inaugural IEEE-IES Digital EcoSystems and Technologies Conference.

[43]  Andrew B. Whinston,et al.  Compositional enterprise modeling and decision support , 2008, Inf. Syst. E Bus. Manag..