Method for monitoring a decision-making process when pursuing an objective in a specific field of application, such as economic, technical, organisational or the like

Abstract

The present invention concerns a method for controlling a decisional process when pursuing an aim in a specific application domain, such as economic, technical or the like. The process is characterized in that a system of agents is created including creator cognitive agents of portable knowledge objects and constructor agents of knowledge objects by adding supplementary knowledge elements to the knowledge objects created. The system launches the decisional process by tracking the observation of an abnormality in the actual data of the aforesaid application domain by the creation of an initial knowledge object representative of an alarm index and causes several decisional paths to be established linked to this object, under the different points of view of different agents, each in its domain, and the decision is made following a merging of decisional paths. The invention applies to the field of collective intelligence and knowledge management.

1 . Method for controlling a decisional process when pursuing an overall aim in a specific application domain, such as economic, technical, organizational or the like, characterized in that a system of agents is created comprising cognitive agents creators of portable knowledge objects and constructor agents of knowledge objects by addition to created knowledge objects, of supplementary knowledge elements, wherein the aforementioned agents are launched by the decisional process system by following the observation of an abnormality in the actual data of the aforesaid application domain by the creation of an initial knowledge object representing an alarm index and establishes several decisional paths linked to said object, under the different points of view by the different agents, each in its domain, and the decision is made following a merging of decisional paths.  
     
     
         2 . Method according to the  claim 1 , characterized in that a decision system is created comprising a group agent constituting a collective knowledge manager called CKM and several agents constituting individual knowledge managers IKM, each in a specific knowledge domain established according to the overall aim pursued, which is associated with the CKM agent and each of which has a structure of creator agents and constructor agents of portable knowledge objects.  
     
     
         3 . Method according to  claim 2 , characterized in that at least certain individual IKM agents are established of the aforementioned individual decisional paths.  
     
     
         4 . Method according to  claim 3 , characterized in that the CKM agent is suited to merge the aforementioned individual decisional paths established by IKM agents, thus creating a collective decisional path.  
     
     
         5 . Method according to one of the previous claims, characterized in that the decisional paths are established during several decision stages called invariants.  
     
     
         6 . Method according to one of  claims 2  to  5 , characterized in that, after the search for knowledge objects representative of alarm indices and knowledge objects representing control points correlated thereto, important events are sought constituting accidents, which are linked to an alarm index object and create a portable knowledge object for each accident.  
     
     
         7 . Method according to  claim 6 , characterized in that it is examined whether two different portable objects, created by two different agents according to two points of view, are the same world object.  
     
     
         8 . Method according to  claim 6 , characterized in that it is examined whether two different portable objects have a proximity of characteristics such that they are considered duals of each other.  
     
     
         9 . Method according to  claim 6 , characterized in that a search invariant is implemented for merge-connection of knowledge objects representing control points and accidents.  
     
     
         10 . Method according to one of the  claims 6  to  9 , characterized in that different knowledge objects are merged which correspond to the same world object.  
     
     
         11 . Method according to one of the  claims 1  to  10 , characterized in that the decisional process reaches the final decision stage by passing through a first stage called presumption, constituting a weak switch in the reasoning, reflecting a simple trend, and a strong switch decision stage, which clearly indicates the direction in which the reasoning must progress.  
     
     
         12 . Method according to  claim 11 , characterized in that the existence of a presumption or weak switch is terminated when two knowledge objects present a certain type of link, specifically when an index object is connected to an control point object or when an object is connected to an operational objective.  
     
     
         13 . Method according to one of the claims  8  or  12 , characterized in that a strong switch exists when two objects are duals and when these objects imply a contradiction at the reasoning level.  
     
     
         14 . Method according to one of the  claims 8  to  13 , characterized in that an invariant is implemented including the search for possibilities of dual merge objects.  
     
     
         15 . Method according to one of the  claims 9  to  14 , characterized in that with a same knowledge object a merging of knowledge elements is foreseen, permitting the merging of two versions of a same object, created by different agents at different times.  
     
     
         16 . Method according to one of the previous claims, characterized in that in CKM and IKM agents the portable knowledge objects are connected which are stored in a storage base associated with the agent in their order of creation, the configuration of objects thus obtained constituting an aforementioned decisional path representing the departure and arrival points of the reasoning tracked individually or collectively during the decisional process, with the intermediate microdecisions constituted by objects lying between the departure and arrival points.  
     
     
         17 . Method according to the  claim 14 , characterized in that knowledge objects constructed during the decisional process, which are stored in a CKM or IKM agent, are advantageously placed with an indication of their order of creation, in a structured knowledge base, in classes and sub-classes.  
     
     
         18 . Method according to one of the previous claims, characterized in that the decision made by the system advantageously implies a man-machine dialog.  
     
     
         19 . Method according to one of the previous claims, characterized in that it performs the merging of different user points of view, thereby creating a collective intelligence which control multiple decisional processes.  
     
     
         20 . Method according to one of the  claims 1  to  19 , characterized in that the decisional processes are stored and capitalized which become reusable by different users and modifiable in light of learning.