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The Pragmatics of Software Agents: Analysis and Design of Agent Communication Languages

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Book cover Intelligent Information Agents

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 2586))

Abstract

Modern ACLs, such as FIPA ACL, provide standardised catalogues of performatives and protocols, designed as general purpose languages to ensure interoperability among agent systems. However, recent work reports a need for new ad-hoc sets of performatives and protocols in certain contexts, showing that FIPA ACL does not support adequately all relevant types of interactions. In this paper we first present a formal model that relates performatives and protocols to the organisation of MAS. Then, a principled method for the design of the ACL of a particular MAS is developed, which accounts for both, reusability and expressiveness. Finally, we illustrate our approach by an example in the domain of agent-based decision support for bus fleet management.

Research sponsored by MCyT, project TIC2000-1370-C04-01, and by CAM, project 07T/0011/2000

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Artificial Intelligence Group School of Engineering, University Rey Juan Carlos, USA

    Juan Manuel Serrano, Sascha Ossowski & Alberto Fernández

Authors
  1. Juan Manuel Serrano
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  2. Sascha Ossowski
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  3. Alberto Fernández
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. German Research Center for Artifical Intelligence Multiagent Systems Group, Stuhlsatzenhausweg 3, 66123, Saarbrücken, Germany

    Matthias Klusch

  2. Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Via Vignolese 905, 41100, Modena, Italy

    Sonia Bergamaschi

  3. Department of Computing Science, University of Aberdeen King’s College, AB24 5UE, Aberdeen, UK

    Pete Edwards

  4. Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Schottengasse 3, 1010, Vienna, Austria

    Paolo Petta

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Manuel Serrano, J., Ossowski, S., Fernández, A. (2003). The Pragmatics of Software Agents: Analysis and Design of Agent Communication Languages. In: Klusch, M., Bergamaschi, S., Edwards, P., Petta, P. (eds) Intelligent Information Agents. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 2586. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36561-3_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36561-3_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-00759-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-36561-7

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