Interaction Primitives for Implementing Multi-agent Systems

2019

This paper examines how we may prototype Multi Agent Systems We informally enu merate the low level technical support needed for such systems and show how IC Prolog II is a good candidate language IC Prolog II is a new implementation of Prolog that is particu larly suited to distributed applications It features multiple threads high level communication primitives and an object oriented extension A fully worked example of specifying an agent is given to illustrate use of the language This shows that it is possible to give a high level description of an agent and that this description can be executed directly making fast proto typing of agents a reality With this new tool researchers in Multi Agent Systems may gain practical experience in exploring ideas on a real implementation Familiarity with the Prolog programming language is assumed

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2008

In this paper we are concerned with proposing, analyzing and implementing simple, yet flexible, constructs for multi-agent programming. In particular, we wish to extend programming languages based on the BDI style of logical agent model with two such constructs, namely constraints and content/context sets. These two aspects provide sufficient expressive power to allow us to represent, simply and with semantic clarity, a wide range of organisational structures for multi-agent systems. We not only introduce this approach, but provide its formal semantics, through modification of an operational semantics based on the core of AGENTSPEAK, 3APL and METATEM. In addition, we provide illustrative examples by simulating both constraints and content/context sets within the Jason interpreter for AGENTSPEAK. In summary, we advocate the use of these simple constructs in many logic-based BDI languages, by appealing to their applicability, simplicity and clear semantics. ⋆

2005

Intelligent agent development has imposed new challenges on the necessary language support. Object-oriented languages have been proposed as an appropriate tool, although logic-oriented languages are more adequate for managing mental attitudes. Multi-paradigm languages supporting encapsulation of actions, hiding of private knowledge and exible manipulation of knowledge are, certainly, a good alternative for programming agents. However, a unique language to support exible and e cient development of multi-agent systems confronts with the tradeo s imposed by expressive power, e ciency and support technology. An alternative to conciliate these tradeo s is not to think about a single language but an incrementally compatible family of agent-oriented multi-paradigm languages. In this work we present an approach based on object-oriented framework technology for integrating object and logic paradigms in such a way that new language features can be incrementally added to the core language. This core language is based on logic modules integrated as object abstractions in the object paradigm. JavaLog is a materialization of this framework integrating Java and Prolog. This core was extended to provide multi-threading support, mobility and temporal-logic operators to Prolog. MoviLog, the mobile part of the family provides a novel mobility mechanism, reactive mobility by failure, which enables virtual Prolog databases distributed across Web sites.

1998

We present a logic programming framework implemented over Prolog which is able to model an agent's mental state. An agent is modeled by a set of extended logic programming rules representing the agent's behavior, attitudes (beliefs, intentions, and goals), world knowledge, and temporal and reasoning procedures. At each stage the agents's mental state is defined by the well founded model of the extended logic program plus some constraints. Via this modeling an agent is able to interact with other agents, ...

APPIA-GULP-PRODE, 2002

Research on tools for modeling and specifying intelligent agents, namely computer systems situated in some environment and capable of flexible autonomous actions, is very lively. Due to the complexity of intelligent agents, the way they are modeled, specified and verified should greatly benefit by the adoption of formal methods. Logic-based languages can be a useful tool for engineering the development of a multi-agent system (MAS). This paper discusses six logic-based languages which have been used to model and specify agents, namely ConGolog, AGENT-0, the IMPACT specification language, Dylog, Concurrent METATEM and. To show their main features and to practically exemplify how they can be used, a common running example is provided. Besides this, a set of desirable features that languages should exhibit to prove useful in engineering a MAS have been identified. A comparison of the six languages with respect to the support given to these features is provided, as well as final considerations on the usefulness of logic-based languages for "agent oriented software engineering".

2000

The notion of agents has provided a way of imbuing traditional computing systems with an extra degree of flexibility that allows them to be more resilient and robust in the face of more varied and unpredictable forms of interaction. One class of agents, typically called intelligent agents, represent their world symbolically according to their beliefs, have goals which need to be achieved, and adopt plans or intentions to achieve them.

2001

This paper deals with communication protocols between agents and between agents and users [3]. It presents a new communication model which is based on a careful analysis of speech act theory and on two fundamental principles applied to communication: a) communication is considered as a negotiation process and, b) communication results in an exchange of mental states. Using this model of communication and the conceptual graph formalism for the representational level, we propose a new agent communication language, called CG-KQML+ which is an extension of the KQML language. The paper also shows the use of CG-KQML+ in a MAS called POSTAGE which aims at helping users in their correspondence task. In POSTAGE, software agents manage administrative correspondence on behalf of and in cooperation with their users. Users and agents have interactions which respect administrative correspondence rules. A POSTAGE agent is responsible for sending the generated message to the addressee's POSTAGE agent. The paper presents the second version of POSTAGE which is implemented using the Prolog+CG language. This paper deals with communication protocols between agents and between agents and users [ 3]. It presents a new communication model which is based on a deep analysis of speech act theory [ 22] [28] and on two fundamental principles: a) communication is considered as a negotiation process [14, 18], b) communication results in an exchange of mental states [7, 24]. Thus, we consider agents' communication as exchanges of mental states (goals, beliefs, etc.) and exchanges of what we call communicational states (CS). Communication is considered as a negotiation game where agents negotiate about proposed CSs. An agent proposes a CS and other agents react to the proposal by accepting, rejecting the proposed CS or even asking for further information. Such an action establishes a relationship between the CS and the agent that is called an agent's positioning. Using this model of communication and the conceptual graph formalism for the representational level, we developed a new agent communication language, called CG-KQML+ which is an extension of the KQML language [12]. CG-KQML+ overcomes some limitations of KQML: KQML performatives are limited to the assertive and directive categories, inappropriate choice of performatives, different interpretations of KQML performatives. The paper also shows the use of CG-KQML+ in a MAS called POSTAGE (POSTman AGEnt) [2]. The aim of this MAS is to help users to achieve correspondence tasks. In POSTAGE, software agents manage administrative correspondence on behalf of and in cooperation with their users. Users and agents interact respecting administrative correspondence rules. A POSTAGE agent is responsible for sending the generated message to the addressee's POSTAGE agent. A first version of POSTAGE has been implemented using ECLIPSE [11] and Delphi [9]. Since that time and by using the Conceptual Graph formalism more fully, we enhanced our standardization work as well as our formulation of POSTAGE. Now, a new version of POSTAGE has been implemented with Prolog+CG language [ 15]. Being a CG-based extension of Prolog, Prolog+CG provides the abstraction level needed to easily implement a CG-based application. Indeed, our new version of POSTAGE is more concise and readable. Moreover, the integration of Java and Prolog+CG [16] enabled us to develop the front/end interface using Java and the kernel of the system using Prolog+CG. Section 2 presents our agent communication model. Section 3 presents CG-KQML+. Section 4 presents the POSTAGE multi-agent system. Section 5 discusses some future works and concludes the paper. 2 The communication model When interacting, agents can engage in two kinds of communication: agent/user communication and inter-agent communication (Figure 1). Agents communicate with users in order to characterize their needs and to provide them with answers or solutions. Agents communicate with each other in order to exchange various kinds of information. When communicating with other agents, an agent uses a specific Agent Communication Language (ACL). An agent's architecture contains a communication process which handles communication activities as well as other processes used to perform various tasks such as planning, decision making or negotiation. In this paper, we focus on the communication activity.

Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 2008

2014 Ieee Wic Acm International Joint Conferences on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technologies, 2014

Complex software systems development require appropriate high-level features to better and easily tackle the new requirements in terms of interactions, concurrency and distribution. This requires a paradigm change in software engineering and corresponding programming languages. We are convinced that agent-oriented programming may be the support for this change by focusing on a small corpus of commonly accepted concepts and the corresponding programming language in line with the current developers' programming practices. This papers introduces SARL, a new general-purpose agent-oriented programming language undertaking this challenge. SARL comes with its full support in the Eclipse IDE for compilation and debugging, and a new version 2.0 of the Janus platform for execution purposes. The main perspective that guided the creation of SARL is the establishment of an open and easily extensible language. Our expectation is to provide the community with a common forum in terms of a first working testbed to study and compare various programming alternatives and associated metamodels.

2011

Agent communication is a core issue when studying all possible ways for agents to organize and collaborate to achieve their goals. We can count on communication standards, as the FIPA Interaction Protocols. On the other hand we can count on high level agent programming languages, like AgentSpeak, which allow us to model and represent the agent and its knowledge and behavior. When implementing a conversation between agents it is necessary to deal with synchronization, communication fails, security, consistency,. . . This may lead to leave aside the core issue: the information that the agents must exchange and the reasoning process to obtain the results.