A Tutorial on Agent Communication and Knowledge Sharing
Behrouz Far2003
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Abstract
With the rapid technological development particularly in the computer industry, many computer programming languages are being developed with many computer programs written in these languages. Writing good programs takes time and effort. It is therefore necessary that programs once written should be able to work together (interoperate) with each other so that a program written in one language can benefit from the advantages that may be associated with another program written in another language. One of the problems with interoperation of programs is the heterogeneity of the programs. This is because programs are written by different people, at different times, in different languages and with different interfaces. Agent-base Software Engineering is an attempt to facilitate the creation of software products that can easily interoperate in such settings. In Agent-base Software Engineering, programs are written as software agents (software components) that communicate with each other by exchanging messages through a communication language. For a successful communication in such heterogeneous environments, the agents have to share knowledge with each other. The aim of this tutorial is to discuss agent communication and knowledge sharing. A discussion about agent communication, methods of agent communication, agent communication languages, content languages and knowledge sharing between agents is presented together with constraints that may inhibit successful knowledge sharing and agent communication.
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