Dynamic Conversation Structures: An Extended Example

Abstract

The author provides an in-depth look at a moderately complex conversation as represented by a finite state machine, a representation used by an established agent communication system. He compares this to a statechart-based method used for Moore’s conversation policy framework and observes that these methods differ in their level of detail, the usefulness of parts of the graphical representation, and in the grouping of events. The remainder of the paper demonstrates how a multi-agent conversation policy can be used to control the flow of messages, contrasts this with how messages are handled via an inference-based process, and shows how the inference-based processing can be integrated with the policy-based handling in order to deal with exceptions to the policy.