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An Operational Framework for the Semantics of Agent Communication Languages

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Engineering Societies in the Agents World III (ESAW 2002)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 2577))

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Abstract

From an engineering perspective, the agent abstraction can be suitably exploited for tackling cooperation of heterogeneous systems, facilitating semantic interoperability of independently developed software components. But, in order to support the sound design of infrastructures for agent systems, adequate models have to be studied as to grasp the important aspects of cooperation at the desired level of abstraction. In this paper we focus on the semantics of Agent Communication Languages (ACLs), and study the approach based on the idea of describing an agent as a grey-box software component, representing its behaviour by means of transition systems. This framework provides an operational description of ACLs, considering the single-step evolution and interactive capability of an agent, which contrasts the classical frameworks based on intentional descriptions, which rely on the concept of agent mental state. Some examples are provided to show the flavours of the proposed model to describe various semantic aspects of communicative acts.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione, AOT Lab, Parco Area delle Scienze 181/A, 43100, Parma, Italy

    Giovanni Rimassa

  2. Università degli Studi di Bologna, DEIS, via Rasi e Spinelli 176, 47023, Cesena, Italy

    Mirko Viroli

Authors
  1. Giovanni Rimassa
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  2. Mirko Viroli
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence Intelligent Agents and New Media Group, Schottengasse 3, 1010, Vienna, Austria

    Paolo Petta

  2. AG Netzbasierte Informationssysteme, Freie Universität Berlin Institut für Informatik, Takustr. 9, 14195, Berlin, Germany

    Robert Tolksdorf

  3. Dipartimento di Scienze e Metodi dell’Ingegneria, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Via Allegri 13, 42100, Reggio Emilia, Italy

    Franco Zambonelli

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© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Rimassa, G., Viroli, M. (2003). An Operational Framework for the Semantics of Agent Communication Languages. In: Petta, P., Tolksdorf, R., Zambonelli, F. (eds) Engineering Societies in the Agents World III. ESAW 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 2577. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-39173-8_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-39173-8_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-14009-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-39173-9

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