1,721,062 research outputs found
Unifying Agent Systems
Full text linkWhilst there has been an explosion of interest in multi-agent systems, there are still many problems that may have a potentially deleterious impact on the progress of the area. These prob- lems have arisen primarily through the lack of a common structure and language for understanding multi-agent systems, and with which to organise and pursue research in this area. In response to this, previous work has been concerned with developing a computational formal framework for agency and autonomy which, we argue, provides an environment in which to develop, evaluate, and compare systems and theories of multi-agent systems. In this paper we go some way towards justifying these claims by reviewing the framework and showing what we can achieve within it by developing models of agent dimensions, categorising key inter-agent relationships and by ap- plying it to evaluate existing multi-agent systems in a coherent computational model. We outline the benefits of specifying each of the systems within the framework and consider how it allows us to unify different systems and approaches in general
A Conceptual Framework for Agent Definition and Development
Full text linkThe use of agents of many different kinds in a variety of fields of computer science and
artificial intelligence is increasing rapidly and is due, in part, to their wide applicability. The
richness of the agent metaphor that leads to many different uses of the term is, however, both a
strength and a weakness: its strength lies in the fact that it can be applied in very many different
ways in many situations for different purposes; the weakness is that the term agent is now used so
frequently that there is no commonly accepted notion of what it is that constitutes an agent. This
paper addresses this issue by applying formal methods to provide a defining framework for agent
systems. The Z specification language is used to provide an accessible and unified formal account
of agent systems, allowing us to escape from the terminological chaos that surrounds agents. In
particular, the framework precisely and unambiguously provides meanings for common concepts
and terms, enables alternative models of particular classes of system to be described within it, and
provides a foundation for subsequent development of increasingly more refined concepts
Engineering AgentSpeak(L): A Formal Computational Model
No full textPerhaps the most successful agent architectures, and certainly the best known, are those based on
the Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) framework. Despite the wealth of research that has accumulated
on both formal and practical aspects of this framework, however, there remains a gap between
the formal models and the implemented systems. In this paper, we build on earlier work by Rao
aimed at narrowing this gap, by developing a strongly-typed, formal, yet computational model of
the BDI-based AgentSpeak(L) language. AgentSpeak(L) is a programming language, based on the
Procedural Reasoning System (PRS) and the Distributed Multi-Agent Reasoning System (dMARS),
which determines the behaviour of the agents it implements. In developing the model, we add to
Rao's work, identify some omissions, and progress beyond the description of a particular language by
giving a formal specification of a general BDI architecture that can be used as the basis for providing
further formal specifications of more sophisticated systems
From SMART to agent systems development
Full text linkIn order for agent-oriented software engineering to prove effective it must use principled notions of agents and enabling specification and reasoning, while still considering routes to practical implementation. This paper deals with the issue of individual agent specification and construction, departing from the conceptual basis provided by the SMART agent framework. SMART offers a descriptive specification of an agent architecture but omits consideration of issues relating to construction and control. In response, we introduce two new views to complement SMART: a behavioural specification and a structural specification which, together, determine the components that make up an agent, and how they operate. In this way, we move from abstract agent system specification to practical implementation. These three aspects are combined to create an agent construction model, actSMART, which is then used to define the AgentSpeak(L) architecture in order to illustrate the application of actSMART
Best papers from EUMAS 2003: The 1st European workshop on multi-agent systems
No full textWe introduce the best papers of EUMA
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