Proactively Composing Web Services as Tasks by Semantic Web Agents

The chapter presents the framework for agent-enabled dynamic composition of Semantic Web Services. The approach and the framework have been developed in several research and development projects by ISRG and IOG. The core of the methodology is the new understanding of a Semantic Web Service as a capability of an intelligent software agent supplied with the proper ontological description. It is demonstrated how diverse Web Services may be composed and mediated by dynamic coalitions of software agents collaboratively performing tasks for service requestors. Middle Agent Layer is introduced to conduct the transformation of a Web Service request to the corresponding task, agent-enabled cooperative task decomposition and performance. Discussed are the formal means to arrange agents’ negotiation, to represent the semantic structure of task-activity-service hierarchy and to assess fellow-agents’ capabilities and credibility factors. It is argued that the presented technique is applicable to various application domains. Presented is the ongoing work on designing and implementing agent-based layered architecture for intelligent rational information and document retrieval. Finally, the discussion of the OntoServ.Net framework for the development of P2P mobile service infrastructures for industrial asset management provides the extension of the Web Service composition approach.