Ontology as a tool for creating open multi-agent resource management systems

This article proposes to use an ontological model of planning object for flexible configuration of multi-agent enterprise resource management systems. It presents the basic ontology of resource planning and gives examples of its extension for resource management in different applications. The concept «Task» is considered as a key concept: a formalized description of various classes of tasks based on this concept allows to create a relatively universal agent and customize it to the specific manufacturing area. On the basis of ontology, an enterprise knowledge base, which contains examples of concepts and relationships, is created. The author introduces new classes of agents for demand-resource networks and proposes a new method of multi-agent planning using the enterprise knowledge base. The proposed approach has been applied in several areas through the developed software suite. It is shown that the using of ontologies allows improving the quality and efficiency of planning by taking into account additional factors on the fly, reduce the costs of creating and supporting multi-agent systems, as well as reduce the time and risks of development.