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A formal semantics for DAI language NUML

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Abstract

Traditional AI systems are brittle in the sense that they fail miserably when presented with problems even slightly outside of their limited range of expertise. A powerful, extensible strategy of Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI) for overcoming such bounds is to put the system in a society of systems. So the ability to coordinate group activities of individuals and to communicate between each other is necessary for a language describing DAI systems. Agent-oriented language NUML is such a language. It is a specific kind of object-oriented language. To give formal semantics to NUML, there is the problem to formalise object-oriented programming paradigm which is still open. The theory of higher-order π-calculus is a concurrent computation model with sufficient capability, which provides us a mathematical tool to do the formalization. This paper tries to use higher-order π-calculus to formalise NUML.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science & Technology, Nanjing University, 210093, Nanjing

    Xu Manwu, Lu Jianfeng, Zeng Fancong & Dai Jinwen

Authors
  1. Xu Manwu
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  2. Lu Jianfeng
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  3. Zeng Fancong
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  4. Dai Jinwen
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Additional information

This project is supported by the National High-tech. Research & Development Program(863), National Natural Science Foundation and National Key Laboratory of Software Engineering of China.

Xu Manwu completed his undergraduate and graduate study in mathematics in 1965 and 1968 in Nanjing University. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science in 1981 and 1984, respectively, from nanjing University.

During 1968 to 1978, he was a research scientist in East China Automation Institute. In 1984, he joined the Deptartment of Computer Science, Nanjing University, and became an Associate Professor in 1986. His research interests include programming languages, formal claculus, artificial intelligence and computer architecture.

Lu Jianfeng received his B.S. degree from Nanjing University in 1992. Now he is a graduate student in Department of Computer Science and Technology, Nanjing University. His research interests include programming languages, formal calculus, artificial intelligence and computer architecture.

Zeng Fancong received his B.S. degree from Nanjing University in 1993. Now he is a graduate student in Department of Computer Science and Technology, Nanjing University. His research interests include programming languages, formal calculus, artificial intelligence and computer architecture.

Dai Jingwen received her B.S. degree in 1993 from Nanjing Normal University. Now she is a graduate student in Department of Computer Science and Technology, Nanjing University. Her research interests include programming languages, formal calculus, artificial intelligence and computer architecture.

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Xu, M., Lu, J., Zeng, F. et al. A formal semantics for DAI language NUML. J. of Compt. Sci. & Technol. 10, 227–238 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02943490

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02943490

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