Abstract: A system, a method and a computer product are disclosed. The method includes using at least one domain ontology including a plurality of domain models connected through mappings to a plurality of data sources, the data sources storing data to be accessed by the query; receiving a query by a query formulation unit; evaluating at least one of a language for defining at least one of the domain models involved in the query, a language of mappings involved in the query and a language of the query and selecting a query answering mode in accordance with results of the evaluation and retrieving an answer meeting at least one query condition from the data sources.

Abstract: It is proposed that an industrial installation, be operated with the power consumption being optimized for a target function. The target function may also factor in further parameters, with the result that multitarget optimization, for example, can be performed and the installation can be adapted in respect of the power consumption or the power consumption can be adapted in respect of the installation. Both the industrial installation and an energy supplier or network operator provide information which can be factored in as appropriate for the purpose of optimization or as part of the target function. It is advantageous that overload situations are avoided and a large number of regenerative energy sources can be used as energy suppliers, because adaptation is effected in line with the amount of energy actually provided. Hence the power supply system can be operated and loaded as appropriate.

Abstract: To enable efficient abduction even for observations that are faulty or inadequately modeled, a relaxed abduction problem is proposed in order to explain the largest possible part of the observations with as few assumptions as possible. On the basis of two preference orders over a subset of observations and a subset of assumptions, tuples can therefore be determined such that the theory, together with the subset of assumptions, explains the subset of observations. The formulation as a multi-criteria optimization problem eliminates the need to offset assumptions made and explained observations against one another. Due to the technical soundness of the approach, specific properties of the set of results (such as correctness, completeness etc.), can be checked, which is particularly advantageous in safety-critical applications.

Abstract: First inter-organizational tracking & tracing systems facilitate timely identification and handling of disruptions along the supply chain. However, these systems typically operate at supply chain management (SCM) and enterprise resource planning system (ERP) level and therefore lack knowledge and control over production processes. The idea is to bridge the gap between logistics and production IT by proposing a novel architecture for coupling the manufacturing operations as defined in IEC 62264 with an EPCIS-compliant real-time tracking & tracing system. The system leverages logic-based complex event processing for detecting critical disruptions in the supply chain and initiates rescheduling of production. It is shown that in the presence of unexpected events the rescheduling algorithm minimizes delays and inventory costs while avoiding <<nervous schedules>> caused by frequent changes.

Abstract: A tractable abduction procedure for a lightweight description logic EL is introduced extending recent research on automata-based axiom pinpointing by assuming information from a predefined abducible part of the domain model. The approach is motivated by the need for efficient diagnostic reasoning for large-scale industrial systems where observations are partially incomplete and often sparse. A weighted automaton can be constructed that commonly encodes a definite and abducible part of the domain model. Advantageously, the approach provides a compact representation of all possible hypotheses explaining an observation, and is in fact computable in PTIME. The procedure can be used for controlling, adjusting or diagnosing all kinds of technical systems, in particular in the area of industry and automation.

Abstract: In a method of strategy selection trading in autonomous trading agents, a plurality of information is perceived regarding characteristics of an autonomous trading agent, the plurality of information is transmitted and interpreted using a plurality of agent policies, a set of acceptable trading strategies is obtained and the acceptable trading strategies are further evaluated via a utility function, and an action within the utility function is executed and bids to be traded by the autonomous trading agents on a market are sent.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus provide for efficiently distributing hardware resource requests to hardware resource offers. Applying the method and apparatus, an allocation of hardware resources is possible in a highly efficient and effective way. Therefore, a system architecture is introduced, which provides components for determining negotiation approaches as well as splitting complex allocation problems into single and independent allocation problems. The method and apparatus find application in a variety of technical domains and especially in the domain of hardware resource allocation as well as agent technology.