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[EN]We tackle the problem of semantic heterogeneity between participants in social coordination systems for multi-agent interactions, focusing on electronic institutions. We propose an ontology aligning mechanism for systems organised in a centralised way, in which agents match their own ontology and protocol against central ones while executing the interaction. We base on the Interaction-Situated Semantic Alignment technique, considering meaning to be dependent on the context of interaction. At the same time, we extend I-SSA with new features such as allowing first-order messages.

In this paper we tackle the problem of semantic heterogeneity in multi-agent communication, i.e., when agents in a multi-agent system use different vocabularies for message passing, or might interpret shared vocabulary in varying ways. The problem of achieving meaningful communication in such semantically heterogeneous multi-agent interactions has been mainly tackled either by using ontology alignments to translate vocabularies, or by using methods that learn an alignment by observing how the utterance of particular terms affects the unfolding of an interaction. We propose solutions that combine these approaches and study how agents can use external alignments with possibly incomplete or erroneous mappings when communicating with each other in the context of a multi-agent interaction. We further show experimentally that with the experience gained through repeated interactions and by using simple learning techniques agents can find and repair those mappings of an ontology alignment that lead to unsuccessful interactions, thus improving the success rate of their future interactions. © 2016 The Authors and IOS Press.

We address what is still a scarcity of general mathematical foundations for ontology-based semantic integration underlying current knowledge engineering methodologies in decentralised and distributed environments. After recalling the first-order ontology-based approach to semantic integration and a formalisation of ontological commitment, we propose a general theory that uses a syntax- and interpretation-independent formulation of language, ontology, and ontological commitment in terms of institutions. We claim that our formalisation generalises the intuitive notion of ontology-based semantic integration while retaining its basic insight, and we apply it for eliciting and hence comparing various increasingly complex notions of semantic integration and ontological commitment based on differing understandings of semantics. © 2008 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.