A basic ontology for multi agent system communication in an environmental monitoring system

Air quality monitoring system is characterized by a large number of information sources used by experts capable of understanding the effects of single pollutants. By using an adequate ontological approach, it is possible to define a system having the ability of doing data mining and giving information to unskilled users too. To do this, we propose in this paper a multiagent system (MAS), layered in five levels, suitable to supply answer to a query characterized by a high semantic level. This is possible using progressive interpreting/multiplying techniques of a complex query in simple queries according with well-known compilers and OS theories. We develop a multiagent system that assists users in generating a uniform description for each information source, using descriptive domain ontology. Users and agents can query the extracted data using a standard querying interface. The ultimate goal is to provide useful information to users, supporting distributed workflow management environments.