| PROPOSAL NUMBER: | 15.06-9445 (For NASA Use Only - Chron: 000556 ) |
| PROPOSAL TITLE: | ACQUIRE: Agent-based Complex QUerying and Information Retrieval Engine |
TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The heterogeneous, distributive, and voluminous nature of NASA?s Earth science data archives imposes severe constraints on meeting diverse user requirements. This is compounded by the need to observe communication bandwidth limitations, time constraints, and a wide variety of database protocols unique to each site. To address these issues, while ensuring the autonomy of individual data sources, our Phase I effort focused on the design of an Agent-based Complex QUerying and Information Retrieval Engine (ACQUIRE). Feasibility was demonstrated with a Java-based ACQUIRE, which retrieved data using mobile agents from distributed networked machines.
For Phase II, we propose a full-scope operational web-enabled ACQUIRE to retrieve data from NASA?s Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs). A COTS-based query interface will be developed to understand the semantics of incomplete and unstructured user queries and translate them to an unambiguous intermediate representation for further processing. More formal planning and traditional database query optimization techniques based on pre-defined templates will be deployed to translate intermediate queries to sub-queries for individual data sources. We will enhance data retrieval efficiency by allowing cooperation among spawned mobile agents satisfying sub-queries. We are specifically targeting our effort to integrate ACQUIRE with NASA?s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS).
POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS
We see several potential commercial applications of the developed mobile agent based technology for distributed query processing and information retrieval. The technology can be directly applied to other domains, in particular, automated information gathering from distributed Internet sites, distributed corporate database environments, and shopping over the Internet. The dual use of the developed core technology complements various ongoing projects including a current effort sponsored by NASA to build a distributed environment for spacecraft onboard planning and scheduling.
NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
(Name, Organization Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)
Dr. Subrata K. Das
Charles River Analytics Inc.
725 Concord Ave
Cambridge , MA 02138 - 1040
NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR
(Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)
Charles River Analytics Inc.
725 Concord Ave
Cambridge , MA 02138 - 1040