In this paper, we present a semantic theory for the exchange of information inmulI8IAM8W systems. We consider the mulOI;IAMJ programminglrogram agent communication programming lprogram which integrates the paradigms of concurrent constraint programming and communicating sequential processes (CSP). The constraint programming techniques are used to represent and process information, whereas the synchronous communication mechanism from CSP is generalANN toenabl the exchange of information. The semantics of theleA8N6;O which is based on a general8;;OAl oftraditional failit semantics, is shown to beful8 abstract with respect to observing of each terminating computation its final gll; store of information.

The paper focuses on the analysis and evaluation of certain aspects of the current specification standards provided by FIPA (Foundation of Intelligent Physical Agents). The work reported here is based on the development of a multi-agent application, an audio video entertainment broadcasting (AVEB) system. This has resulted in determining advantages and limitations of using the FIPA standards to build complex Multi-agent Software Systems. The development and testing of the AVEB application are part of an EU project called FACTS (acts AC317). A main result of using FIPA has been the identification of the usefulness and power of its protocols. The reason for the importance of the protocols in developing multi-agent systems (MAS) is it provides a degree of expressing cooperation within MAS architecture. As the protocols stand currently they are not sufficient to capture a complete explicit model of the cooperative requirements in multi-agent systems. However, they provide a basis from which to start. We examine this feature of FIPA further in order to evaluate its role as a bridge between the mental agency and social agency requirements in the development of cooperation in mult-agent systems.

In any multi-agent system the coordination between the agents is an important element that determines to a large extent the effectiveness of the system. One way to facilitate the coordination between the agents are agent communication languages. In this paper we will present a short introduction to agent communication languages in general and will indicate the main topics of interest in agent communication research. We will relate these developments to the characteristics of cooperative information agents in particular. This leads to a number of short term goals for the development of agent communication between cooperative information agents, which are for some part very practical and also deviate in emphasis from agent communication in general. 1

In this paper, we study the operational semantics of agent communication languages. We develop a general multi-agent programming language for systems of concurrently operating agents, where each agent has a mental state consisting of beliefs and goals, and the interaction between the agents proceeds via a rendezvous communication mechanism. We will thereby build upon well-understood concepts from the object-oriented programming paradigm as object classes, method invocations and object creation. The formal semantics of the language is given by means of transition rules that describe its operational behaviour. Moreover, the operational semantics closely follow the syntactic structure of the language, and hence give rise to an abstract machine to interpret the language. 1 Introduction The research on agent-oriented programming has yielded a variety of programming languages for multi-agent systems, each of which incorporates a particular mechanism of agent communication. Many of these com...

The software agent paradigm has evolved from a specialised stream of distributed artificial intelligence because of the emerging and commercially important need for software systems to inter-operate via heterogeneous networks. However, the software agent paradigm has taken a considerable amount of time to come to fruition in the communications domain, especially in the telecommunications world. From the early conceptions of software agents, where such agents would remove the need for humans to carry out mundane tasks, agent technology has been applied to all kinds of applications, from air traffic control to business workflow management. Telecommunications infrastructures are a natural application domain for Software Agents. We clarify the potential for the application of agent technology in the communications domain and provide an overview of publicly available research on software agents as used for network management and control. We will focus on the so called "stationary i...

We present a language Scc for a specification of the direct exchange and/or the global sharing of information in multi-agent systems. Scc is based on concurrent constraint programming paradigm which we modify in such a way that agents can (i) maintain its local private store, (ii) share (read/write) the information in the global store and (iii) communicate with other agents (via multi-party or hand-shake). To justify our proposal we compare Scc to a recently proposed language for the exchange of information in multi-agent systems. Also we provide an operational semantics of Scc. The full semantic treatment is sketched only and done elsewhere.

Abstract not found

Abstract. In this paper we present a prototype of a tool that demonstrates how existing limitations in ensuring an agent’s compliance to an argumentation-based dialogue protocol can be overcome. We also present the implementation of compliance enforcement components for a deliberation dialogue protocol, and an application that enables two human participants to engage in an efficiently moderated dialogue, where all inappropriate utterances attempted by an agent are blocked and prevented from inclusion within the dialogue. 1

In this paper, we present a semantic theory for the exchange of information in multi-agent systems. We define a concurrent programming language for systems of agents that maintain their own private stores of information and that interact with each other by means of a synchronous communication mechanism that allows for the exchange of information. The semantics of the language, which is based on a generalisation of traditional failure semantics, is shown to be fully-abstract with respect to observing of each terminating computation its final global store of information.

This text presents results of ongoing research, which is aimed at developing a framework for developing multimodal natural language dialogue systems operating within virtual environments. The aspects of multimodality and presence in a virtual environment are chosen as the main focus of this research. It may be argued that specification techniques would form the basis of such a framework. Therefore, a general overview and evaluation is given of existing specification techniques for interactive systems, based on both literature and previous research results. This includes the object-oriented model, process algebras, interactor models, and agent systems. Agent systems are further subdivided into intentional logics, production rule systems, agent communication languages, agent platforms, and agent architectures.