Abstract
Developing agent applications is a complex and difficult task due to a variety of reasons. One key aspect making multi-agent systems more complicated than traditional applications is that interaction behavior is based on elaborate communication forms such as negotiations instead of simple method calls. Aimed at facilitating the specification and usage of agent communication, agent research resulted e.g. in the definition and standardization of several general purpose interaction protocols such as contract-net or English auction. Nevertheless, the usage of these valuable interaction patterns currently forces developers to concentrate on the details of message passing instead of thinking in terms of the application domain. To alleviate this problem in this paper a goal-oriented approach is proposed, which hides message passing details allowing developers to concentrate on the domain aspects of protocols. The new approach is based on the BDI agent model and is implemented within the Jadex agent framework. The advantages of the goal-based interaction handling are further illustrated by an example application.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Wooldridge, M.: An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester (2001)
Ferber, J.: Multi-Agents Systems. Addison-Wesley, Reading (1999)
Bauer, B., Müller, J., Odell, J.: Agent UML: A formalism for specifying multiagent software systems. Software Eng. and Knowledge Eng. 11(3), 207–230 (2001)
Bordini, R., Dastani, M., Dix, J., El Fallah-Seghrouchni, A.: Multi-Agent Programming: Languages, Platforms and Applications. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Bratman, M.: Intention, Plans, and Practical Reason. Harvard Press (1987)
Dinkloh, M., Nimis, J.: A tool for integrated design and implementation of conversations in multiagent systems. In: Bordini, R.H., Dastani, M., Dix, J., Seghrouchni, A.E.F. (eds.) Programming Multi-Agent Systems. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 3346, pp. 187–200. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Cabac, L., Moldt, D.: Formal semantics for AUML agent interaction protocol diagrams. In: Odell, J.J., Giorgini, P., Müller, J.P. (eds.) AOSE 2004. LNCS, vol. 3382, pp. 47–61. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Rooney, C., Collier, R.W., O’Hare, G.M.P.: VIPER: A VIsual Protocol EditoR. In: De Nicola, R., Ferrari, G.L., Meredith, G. (eds.) COORDINATION 2004. LNCS, vol. 2949, pp. 279–293. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
Ehrler, L., Cranefield, S.: Executing agent UML diagrams. In: AAMAS 2004. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, pp. 906–913. IEEE, Los Alamitos (2005)
Scheibe, A.: Ausführungsumgebung für FIPA Interaktionsprotokolle am Beispiel von Jadex (in German). Diplomarbeit, University of Hamburg (2003)
Cheong, C., Winikoff, M.: Hermes: Designing goal-oriented agent interactions. In: Müller, J.P., Zambonelli, F. (eds.) AOSE 2005. LNCS, vol. 3950, Springer, Heidelberg (2006)
Bellifemine, F., Caire, G., Greenwood, D.: Developing Multi-Agent systems with JADE. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester (2007)
Whitestein Technologies: Semantic Communication User Manual, 2.0.0 (2006)
Ricci, A., Viroli, M., Omicini, A.: CArtAgO: An infrastructure for engineering computational environments in MAS. In: Weyns, D., Parunak, H.V.D., Michel, F. (eds.) E4MAS. LNCS, vol. 4389, pp. 102–119. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)
McCarthy, J.: Ascribing mental qualities to machines. In: Philosophical Perspectives in Artificial Intelligence, pp. 161–195. Humanities Press (1979)
Braubach, L., Pokahr, A., Moldt, D., Lamersdorf, W.: Goal Representation for BDI Agent Systems. In: Bordini, R.H., Dastani, M., Dix, J., Seghrouchni, A.E.F. (eds.) Programming Multi-Agent Systems. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 3346, pp. 44–65. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
van Lamsweerde, A.: Goal-Oriented Requirements Engineering: A Guided Tour. In: RE 2001. Requirements Engineering, pp. 249–263. IEEE Press, Los Alamitos (2001)
Giorgini, P., Kolp, M., Mylopoulos, J., Pistore, M.: The Tropos Methodology. In: Methodologies and Software Engineering for Agent Systems, Kluwer, Dordrecht (2004)
Pokahr, A., Braubach, L., Lamersdorf, W.: Jadex: A BDI Reasoning Engine [4]
Braubach, L., Pokahr, A., Lamersdorf, W.: Extending the Capability Concept for Flexible BDI Agent Modularization. In: Bordini, R.H., Dastani, M., Dix, J., Seghrouchni, A.E.F. (eds.) Programming Multi-Agent Systems. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 3862, pp. 139–155. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)
Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA): FIPA Contract Net Interaction Protocol Specification, Document no. FIPA00029 (December 2002)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Braubach, L., Pokahr, A. (2007). Goal-Oriented Interaction Protocols. In: Petta, P., Müller, J.P., Klusch, M., Georgeff, M. (eds) Multiagent System Technologies. MATES 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 4687. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74949-3_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74949-3_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-74948-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-74949-3
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)