Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

International Workshop on Engineering Multi-Agent Systems

EMAS 2016: Engineering Multi-Agent Systems pp 22–38Cite as

Towards Data- and Norm-Aware Multiagent Systems

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 10093))

Abstract

We recall the key abstractions and models on which the major approaches to software specification rely, using Meyer’s forces of computation as dimensions of comparison. Based on the identified strengths and lacks, we introduce data-awareness and of norm-awareness as recommended properties, explaining the advantages they bring about. We show that multiagent systems are a good candidate for the development of a data- and norm-aware programming, tracing directions for the realization of multiagent systems that are data and norm-aware. Finally, we report and comment some proposals from the multiagent systems literature that, though developed independently and not inserted in an organic framework, already face specific aspects that are relevant to bring about norm and data-awareness.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.igrafx.com/.

  2. 2.

    This is summarized by the well-known motto “Objects do it for free; agents do it because they want it”.

  3. 3.

    Summarizing, objects “do it” for free because they are data, agents are processes and “do it” because it is functional to their objectives.

References

  1. Alonso, G., Casati, F., Kuno, H., Machiraju, V.: Web Services: Concepts, Architectures and Applications. Data-Centric Systems and Applications. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. Baldoni, M., Baroglio, C., Capuzzimati, F., Micalizio, R.: Empowering agent coordination with social engagement. In: Gavanelli, M., Lamma, E., Riguzzi, F. (eds.) AI*IA 2015. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 9336, pp. 89–101. Springer, Heidelberg (2015). doi:10.1007/978-3-319-24309-2_7

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  3. Baldoni, M., Baroglio, C., Capuzzimati, F., Micalizio, R.: Leveraging commitments and goals in agent interaction. In: Ancona, D., Maratea, M., Mascardi, V. (eds.) Proceedings of XXX Italian Conference on Computational Logic (CILC) (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Baldoni, M., Baroglio, C., Marengo, E., Patti, V., Capuzzimati, F.: Engineering commitment-based business protocols with the 2CL methodology. JAAMAS 28(4), 519–557 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Belardinelli, F., Lomuscio, A., Patrizi, F.: A computationally-grounded semantics for artifact-centric systems and abstraction results. In: Walsh, T. (ed.) Proceedings of the 22nd International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2011), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, 16–22 July, 2011, pp. 738–743. IJCAI/AAAI (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Bhattacharya, K., Caswell, N.S., Kumaran, S., Nigam, A., Frederick, Y.W.: Artifact-centered operational modeling: lessons from customer engagements. IBM Syst. J. 46(4), 703–721 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Boella, G., van der Torre, L.W.N.: Regulative, constitutive norms in normative multiagent systems. In: Dubois, D., Welty, C.A., Williams, M-A. (eds.) Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR 2004), Whistler, Canada, 2–5 June, pp. 255–266. AAAI Press (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Boella, G., van der Torre, L.W. N., Verhagen, H.: Introduction to normative multiagent systems. In: Boella, G., van der Torre, L.W.N., Verhagen, H. (eds.) Normative Multi-agent Systems, 18.03. – 23.03.2007, vol. 07122 of Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings. Internationales Begegnungs- und Forschungszentrum für Informatik (IBFI), Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Boissier, O., Bordini, R.H., Hübner, J.F., Ricci, A., Santi, A.: Multi-agent oriented programming with JaCaMo. Sci. Comput. Program. 78(6), 747–761 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Bordini, R.H., Fred Hübner, J., Wooldridge, M.: Programming Multi-Agent Systems in AgentSpeak Using Jason. Wiley, Chichester (2007)

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  11. Bratman, M.E.: What is intention? In: Cohen, P., Morgan, J., Pollack, M. (eds.) Intensions in Communication, pp. 15–31. MIT Press, Cambridge (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Bresciani, P., Perini, A., Giorgini, P., Giunchiglia, F., Mylopoulos, J.: Tropos: an agent-oriented software development methodology. Auton. Agent. Multi Agent Syst. 8(3), 203–236 (2004)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  13. Bridgeland, D.M., Zahavi, R.: Business Modeling: A Practical Guide to Realizing Business Value. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Calvanese, D., De Giacomo, G., Montali, M.: Foundations of data-aware process analysis: a database theory perspective. In: Hull, R., Fan, W. (eds.) Proceedings of the 32nd ACM SIGMOD-SIGACT-SIGART Symposium on Principles of Database Systems (PODS 2013), New York, NY, USA, 22–27 June, pp. 1–12. ACM (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Chopra, A.K., Singh, M.P.: Constitutive interoperability. In: Proceedings of the 7th International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, vol. 2, pp. 797–804. International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Chopra, A.K., Singh, M.P.: Agent communication. In: Weiss, G. (ed.) Multiagent Systems, 2nd edn. MIT Press, Cambridge (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Chopra, A.K., Singh, M.P.: Cupid: commitments in relational algebra. In: Bonet, B., Koenig, S. (eds.) Proceedings of the Twenty-Ninth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 25–30 January, Austin, Texas, USA, pp. 2052–2059. AAAI Press (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Cohn, D., Hull, R.: Business artifacts: a data-centric approach to modeling business operations and processes. IEEE Data Eng. Bull. 32(3), 3–9 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Criado, N., Argente, E., Noriega, P., Botti, V.: Reasoning about constitutive norms in BDI agents. Logic J. IGPL 22(1), 66–93 (2013)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  20. Dastani, M., van der Torre, L., Yorke-Smith, V.: Commitments and interaction norms in organisations. In: Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, pp. 1–43 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Brito, M., Hübner, J.F., Boissier, O.: A conceptual model for situated artificial institutions. In: Bulling, N., Torre, L., Villata, S., Jamroga, W., Vasconcelos, W. (eds.) CLIMA 2014. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 8624, pp. 35–51. Springer, Heidelberg (2014). doi:10.1007/978-3-319-09764-0_3

    Google Scholar 

  22. Demazeau, Y.: From interactions to collective behaviour in agent-based systems. In: Proceedings of the 1st European Conference on Cognitive Science, pp. 117–132, Saint-Malo (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Desai, N., Chopra, A.K., Singh, M.P.: Amoeba: a methodology for modeling and evolving cross-organizational business processes. ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol. 19(2), 6 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Di Leva, A., Femiano, S.: The BP-M* methodology for process analysis in the health sector. Intell. Inf. Manage. 3(2), 56–63 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  25. d’Inverno, M., Luck, M., Noriega, P., Rodríguez-Aguilar, J.A., Sierra, C.: Communicating open systems. Artif. Intell. 186, 38–94 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Gibbs, J.P.: Norms: the problem of definition and classification. Am. J. Sociol. 70(5), 586–594 (1965)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Governatori, G.: Law, logic and business processes. In: Third International Workshop on Requirements Engineering and Law (RELAW 2010), Sydney, NSW, Australia, 28 September, pp. 1–10. IEEE (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Guarino, N., Guizzardi, G.: “We need to discuss the relationship”: revisiting relationships as modeling constructs. In: Zdravkovic, J., Kirikova, M., Johannesson, P. (eds.) CAiSE 2015. LNCS, vol. 9097, pp. 279–294. Springer, Heidelberg (2015). doi:10.1007/978-3-319-19069-3_18

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  29. Guarino, N., Guizzardi, G.: Relationships, events: towards a general theory of reification and truthmaking. In: Advances in Artificial Intelligence - XVth International Conference of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AI*IA 2016), Genova, Italy, Proceedings, LNCS. Springer (2016, to appear)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Hewitt, C., Bishop, P., Steiger, R.: A universal modular ACTOR formalism for artificial intelligence. In: Nilsson, N.J. (ed.) Proceedings of the 3rd International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Standford, CA, pp. 235–245. William Kaufmann (1973)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Jennings, N.R.: On agent-based software engineering. Artif. Intell. 117(2), 277–296 (2000)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  32. Jones, A.J.I., Carmo, J.: Deontic logic and contrary-to-duties. In: Gabbay, D. (ed.) Handbook of Philosophical Logic, pp. 203–279. Kluwer (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Meyer, B.: Object-Oriented Software Construction, 2nd edn. Prentice-Hall Inc., Upper Saddle River (1997)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  34. Mitchell, J.C.: Concepts in Programming Languages. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2002)

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  35. Molesini, A., Omicini, A., Denti, E., Ricci, A.: SODA: a roadmap to artefacts. In: Dikenelli, O., Gleizes, M.-P., Ricci, A. (eds.) ESAW 2005. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 3963, pp. 49–62. Springer, Heidelberg (2006). doi:10.1007/11759683_4

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  36. Montali, M., Calvanese, D., De Giacomo, G.: Verification of data-aware commitment-based multiagent system. In: Bazzan, A.L.C., Huhns, M.N., Lomuscio, A., Scerri, P. (eds.) International conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS 2014), Paris, France, 5–9 May, pp. 157–164. IFAAMAS/ACM (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  37. Neykova, R., Yoshida, N.: Multiparty session actors. In: Kühn, E., Pugliese, R. (eds.) COORDINATION 2014. LNCS, vol. 8459, pp. 131–146. Springer, Heidelberg (2014). doi:10.1007/978-3-662-43376-8_9

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  38. Omicini, A., Ricci, A., Viroli, M.: Artifacts in the A&A meta-model for multi-agent systems. Auton. Agents Multi Agent Syst. 17(3), 432–456 (2008). Special Issue on Foundations, Advanced Topics and Industrial Perspectives of Multi-Agent Systems

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Ricci, A., Piunti, M., Viroli, M.: Environment programming in multi-agent systems: an artifact-based perspective. Auton. Agents Multi Agent Syst. 23(2), 158–192 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Ricci, A., Santi, A.: From actors and concurrent objects to agent-oriented programming in simpAL. In: Agha, G., Igarashi, A., Kobayashi, N., Masuhara, H., Matsuoka, S., Shibayama, E., Taura, K. (eds.) Papers dedicated to Akinori Yonezawa on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday. LNCS, vol. 8665, pp. 408–445. Springer, Heidelberg (2014). doi:10.1007/978-3-662-44471-9_17

    Google Scholar 

  41. Russell, S.J., Norvig, P.: Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, 2nd edn. Pearson Education, Upper Sadle River (2003)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  42. Shoham, Y.: Agent-oriented programming. Artif. Intell. 60(1), 51–92 (1993)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  43. Singh, M.P.: An ontology for commitments in multiagent systems. Artif. Intell. Law 7(1), 97–113 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Singh, M.P.: Norms as a basis for governing sociotechnical systems. ACM TIST 5(1), 21 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  45. Singh, M.P., Huhns, M.N.: Service-Oriented Computing - Semantics, Processes, Agents. Wiley, Chichester (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  46. Tasharofi, S., Dinges, P., Johnson, R.E.: Why do scala developers mix the actor model with other concurrency models? In: Castagna, G. (ed.) ECOOP 2013. LNCS, vol. 7920, pp. 302–326. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). doi:10.1007/978-3-642-39038-8_13

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  47. Telang, P.R., Singh, M.P., Yorke-Smith, N.: Relating goal and commitment semantics. In: Dennis, L., Boissier, O., Bordini, R.H. (eds.) ProMAS 2011. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 7217, pp. 22–37. Springer, Heidelberg (2012). doi:10.1007/978-3-642-31915-0_2

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  48. Therborn, G.: Back to norms! on the scope and dynamics of norms and normative action. Current Sociol. 50, 863–880 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. Weske, M.: Business Process Management: Concepts, Languages, Architectures. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  50. Weyns, D., Omicini, A., Odell, J.: Environment as a first class abstraction in multiagent systems. JAAMAS 14(1), 5–30 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  51. Wooldridge, M.J.: Introduction to Multiagent Systems, 2nd edn. Wiley, Chichester (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  52. Zambonelli, F., Jennings, N.R., Wooldridge, M.: Developing multiagent systems: the Gaia methodology. ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol. 12(3), 317–370 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for the helpful comments. This work was developed during the sabbatical year that Matteo Baldoni and Cristina Baroglio spent at the Free University of Bolzano-Bozen. It was partially supported by the Accountable Trustworthy Organizations and Systems (AThOS) project, funded by Università degli Studi di Torino and Compagnia di San Paolo (CSP 2014).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Informatica, Università degli Studi di Torino, c.so Svizzera 185, 10149, Torino, Italy

    Matteo Baldoni, Cristina Baroglio & Roberto Micalizio

  2. KRDB Research Centre, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Piazza Domenicani 3, 39100, Bolzano, Italy

    Diego Calvanese & Marco Montali

Authors
  1. Matteo Baldoni
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Cristina Baroglio
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Diego Calvanese
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Roberto Micalizio
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Marco Montali
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matteo Baldoni .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Università degli Studi di Torino, Turin, Italy

    Matteo Baldoni

  2. TU Clausthal, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Niedersachsen, Germany

    Jörg P. Müller

  3. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

    Ingrid Nunes

  4. University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas, USA

    Rym Zalila-Wenkstern

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

About this paper

Cite this paper

Baldoni, M., Baroglio, C., Calvanese, D., Micalizio, R., Montali, M. (2016). Towards Data- and Norm-Aware Multiagent Systems. In: Baldoni, M., Müller, J., Nunes, I., Zalila-Wenkstern, R. (eds) Engineering Multi-Agent Systems. EMAS 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10093. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50983-9_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50983-9_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-50982-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-50983-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation