A multi-agent system of evidential reasoning for intelligence analyses

Eric Lindahl, Stephen O'Hara, Qiuming Zhu

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper describes a Multi-Agent System intended for assisting military commanders and intelligence analysts in the discovery and analysis of publicly available information that may have intelligence value (Open Source Intelligence, or OSINT). Our system is called Webster, which is a pun on the well-known dictionary and the World Wide Web. An innovative feature of Webster is the trust network that allows for the hierarchical integration of judgements provided by both human and computer agents, and the ability to extend the system by adding new agents that encapsulate a given characterization capability - such as the ability to provide a level of facial recognition on images that may be embedded in web pages. A key challenge is in creating a normalized concept structure or belief frame that all participating agents, at a certain level, can use to focus their analysis and render opinions that can be meaningfully combined with the opinions of other entities in the system. Webster can scale from a single machine to a large interconnection of subject matter experts and special-purpose computer systems by providing proxy agents that act as intermediaries in the system.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationAAMAS'07 - Proceedings of the 6th International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems
Pages1434-1439
Number of pages6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007
Event6th International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, AAMAS'07 - Honolulu, HI, United States
Duration: May 14 2008May 18 2008

Publication series

NameProceedings of the International Conference on Autonomous Agents

Conference

Conference6th International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, AAMAS'07
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityHonolulu, HI
Period5/14/085/18/08

Keywords

  • Evidential reasoning
  • Intelligence analysis
  • Knowledge discovery
  • OSINT
  • Subjective logic

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Theoretical Computer Science

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