Multi-Agent Programming: Languages, Platforms and Applications
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Multi-Agent Programming Languages, Platforms and Applications Multiagent Systems, Artificial Societies, and Simulated Organizations International Book Series Series Editor: Gerhard Weiss, Technische Universitdt Munchen Editorial Board: Kathleen M. Carley, Carnegie Mellon University, PA, USA Yves Demazeau, CNRS Laboratoire LEIBNIZ, France Ed Durfee, University of Michigan, USA Les Gasser, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA Nigel Gilbert, University of Surrey, United Kingdom Michael Huhns, University of South Carolina, SC, USA Nick Jennings, University of Southampton, UK Victor Lesser, University of Massachusetts, MA, USA Katia Sycara, Carnegie Mellon University, PA, USA Michael Wooldridge, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom Books in the Series: CONFLICTING AGENTS: Conflict Management in Multi-Agent Systems, edited by Catherine Tessier, Laurent Chaudron and Heinz-Jurgen Miiller, ISBN: 0-7923-7210-7 SOCIAL ORDER IN MULTIAGENT SYSTEMS, edited by Rosaria Conte and Chrysanthos Dellarocas, ISBN: 0-7923-7450-9 SOCIALLY INTELLIGENT AGENTS: Creating Relationships with Computers and Robots, edited by Kerstin Dautenhahn, Alan H. Bond, Lola Caiiamero and Bruce Edmonds, ISBN: 1-4020-7057-8 CONCEPTUAL MODELLING OF MULTI-AGENT SYSTEMS: The CoMoMAS Engineering Environment, by Norbert Glaser, ISBN: 1-4020-7061-6 GAME THEORY AND DECISION THEORY IN AGENT-BASED SYSTEMS, edited by Simon Parsons, Piotr Gmytrasiewicz, Michael Wooldridge, ISBN: 1-4020-7115-9 REFUTATION IN ARTIFICIAL SOCIETIES: Social Beliefs for Social Order, by Rosaria Conte, Mario Paolucci, ISBN: 1-4020-7186-8 AGENT AUTONOMY, edited by Henry Hexmoor, Cristiano Castelfranchi, Rino Falcone, ISBN: 1-4020-7402-6 AGENT SUPPORTED COOPERATIVE WORK, edited by Yiming Ye, Elizabeth Churchill, ISBN: 1-4020-7404-2 DISTRIBUTED SENSOR NETWORKS, edited by Victor Lesser, Charles L. Ortiz, Jr., MilindTambe, ISBN: 1-4020-7499-9 AN APPLICATION SCIENCE FOR MULTI-AGENT SYSTEMS, edited by Thomas A. Wagner, ISBN: 1-4020-7867-6 METHODOLOGIES AND SOFTWARE ENGINEERING FOR AGENT SYSTEMS: The Agent-Oriented Software Engineering Handbook, edited by Federico Bergenti, Marie-Pierre Gleizes, Franco Zambonelli AUTONOMY ORIENTED COMPUTING: From Problem Solving to Complex Systems Modeling, Jiming Liu, XiaoLong Jin, and Kwok Ching Tsui, ISBN 1-4020-8121-9 EXTENDING WEB SERVICES TEHCNOLOGIES, edited by Lawrence Cavedon, Zakaria Maamar, David Martin, Boualem Benatallah, ISBN 0-387-23343-1 AGENT INTELLIGENCE THROUGH DATA MINING, Andreas L. Symeonidis, Pericles A. Mitkas, ISBN 0-387-24352-6 Multi-Agent Programming Languages, Platforms and Applications Edited by Rafael H. Bordini Mehdi Dastani University of Durham Utrecht University Jiirgen Dix Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni Clausthal University of University of Paris IV Technology Springer Edited by Rafael H. Bordini University of Durham, USA Mehdi Dastani Utrecht University, NETHERLANDS Jurgen Dix Clausthal University of Technology, GERMANY Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni University of Paris VI, FRANCE Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CLP. Catalogue record for this book is available From the Library of Congress ISBN-10: 0-387-24568-5 (HB) e-ISBN 10: 0-387- 26350-0 ISBN-13: 978-0387-24568-3 (HB) e-ISBN-13: 978-0387-26350-2 Printed on acid-free paper © 2005 by Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science + Business Media, Inc., 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed in the United States of America 987654321 SPIN 11372691 springeronline.com Contents List of Figures xi Contributing Authors xv Preface xxiii Foreword xxix Acknowledgments xxxii Part I Logic- or Process Algebra-based Programming Languages 1 Jason and the Golden Fleece of Agent-Oriented Programming 3 Rafael H. Bordini, Jomi E Hiibner, andRenata Vieira \A. Motivation 4 L2. Language 8 L2.1 Specifications and Syntactical Aspects 10 1.2.2 Semantics and Verification 13 1.2.3 Software Engineering Issues 21 1.2.4 Other Features of the Language 21 1.3. Platform 25 1.3.1 Main Features of the Jason Platform 25 1.3.2 Available Tools and Documentation 34 1.3.3 Standards Compliance, Interoperability, and Portability 35 1.3.4 Applications Supported by the Language and the Platform 36 1.4. Final Remarks 37 Acknowledgments 37 2 Programming Multi-Agent Systems in 3APL 39 Mehdi Dastani, M. Birna van Riemsdijk, and John-Jules Ch. Meyer 2.1. Motivation 39 2.2. Language 41 2.2.1 Specifications and Syntactical Aspects 42 2.2.2 Semantics and Verification 54 2.2.3 Software Engineering Issues 60 2.2.4 Language integration 63 vi MULTI-AGENT PROGRAMMING 2.3. Platform 63 2.3.1 Available tools and documentation 63 2.3.2 Standards compliance, interoperability and portability 65 ,2.4. Applications 66 2.5. Final Remarks 66 Acknowledgments 67 3 IMPACT: A Multi-Agent Framework with Declarative Semantics 69 Jiirgen Dix and Yingqian Zhang 3.1. Motivation 69 3.2. Language 72 3.2.1 Specifications and Syntactical Aspects 74 3.2.2 Semantics and Verification 78 3.2.3 Software Engineering Issues 82 3.2.4 Other features of the language 83 3.3. Platform 87 3.3.1 Features of the platform 87 3.3.2 Available tools and documentation 92 3.3.3 Standards compliance, interoperability and portability 92 3.4. Apphcations 93 3.5. Final Remarks 93 Acknowledgments 94 4 CLAIM and SyMPA: A Programming Environment for Intelligent and 95 Mobile Agents Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni and Alexandru Suna 4.1. Motivation 95 4.2. Language 97 4.2.1 Specifications and Syntactical Aspects 97 4.2.2 Semantics and Verification 102 4.2.3 Software Engineering Issues 112 4.2.4 Other features of the language 113 4.3. Platform 113 4.3.1 Available tools and documentation 113 4.3.2 Standards compliance, interoperability and portability 116 4.3.3 Other features of the platform 116 4.4. Applications 117 4.5. Final Remarks 122 Part II Java-Based Agent Programming Languages 5 JADE — A Java Agent Development Framework 125 Fabio Bellifemine, Federico Bergenti, Giovanni Caire, andAgostino Poggi Contents vii 5.1. Motivation 126 5.2. Platform 126 5.2.1 Available tools and documentation 131 5.2.2 Standards compliance, interoperability and portability 133 5.2.3 Other features of the platform 133 5.2.4 Realizing multi-agent systems with the platform 134 5.3. Applications 138 5.3.1 CoMMA 138 5.3.2 Agentcities 140 5.3.3 RAP 142 5.4. Final Remarks 147 Acknowledgments 147 6 Jadex: A BDI Reasoning Engine 149 Alexander Pokahr, Lars Brauhach, and Winfried Lamersdorf 6.1. Motivation 149 6.2. Architecture 150 6.2.1 BDI Models and Systems 151 6.2.2 Concepts within Jadex 151 6.2.3 Execution Model 154 6.3. Language 156 6.3.1 Specifications and Syntactical Aspects 157 6.3.2 Software Engineering Issues 161 6.3.3 Example 162 6.4. Platform 167 6.4.1 Available tools and documentation 169 6.4.2 Standards compliance, interoperability and portability 170 6.5. Applications 172 6.6. Final Remarks 173 Acknowledgments 174 7 JACK^^ Intelligent Agents: An Industrial Strength Platform 1^5 Michael Winikoff 7A. Motivation 175 7.2. Language 178 7.2.1 Specifications and Syntactical Aspects 178 7.2.2 Semantics and Verification 182 7.2.3 Software Engineering Issues 183 7.2.4 Other features of the language 184 7.3. Platform 185 7.3.1 Available tools and documentation 186 7.3.2 Standards compHance, interoperability and portability 188 7.3.3 Other features of the platform 189 7.4. Applications 190 7.5. JACK: A Platform for Research 192 vIII MULTI-AGENT PROGRAMMING 7.6. Final Remarks 192 Acknowledgments 193 Part III Industrial-Strength Applications 8 The DEFACTO System: Coordinating Human-Agent Teams for the 197 Future of Disaster Response N. Schurr, J.Marecki, J.P. Lewis, M. Tambe, and P. Scerri 8.1. Introduction 198 8.2. Application Domain 199 8.2.1 Omni-Viewer 200 8.2.2 Proxy-based teamwork 203 8.3. Agents 203 8.3.1 Adjustable Autonomy 204 8.4. Multi-Agent System 205 8.4.1 Organisation 207 8.4.2 Interaction 208 8.4.3 MAS Environment 208 8.5. Experiments 209 8.5.1 Evaluation 209 8.6. Related Work and Summary 214 9 ARTIMIS Rational Dialogue Agent Technology: an overview 217 David Sadek 9.1. Introduction 217 9.2. Application domain 218 9.3. ARTIMIS as an autonomous agent 220 9.3.1 Formal rational interaction theory 220 9.3.2 ARTIMIS agent architecture and implementation 228 9.4. ARTIMIS agents in multi-agent systems 234 9.5. Cases of ARTIMIS-based applications 237 9.5.1 ARTIMIS as a natural human-computer dialogue agent 237 9.5.2 ARTIMIS as mediation agent 241 9.6. Conclusion 243 Summaries for Quick Reference and Comparison 245 Appendix A: Comparison Criteria 247 Appendix B: Jason Summary 250 Appendix C: 3APL Summary 253 Appendix D: IMPACT Summary 255 Appendix E: CLAIM Summary 257 Contents ix Appendix F: JADE Summary 260 Appendix G: Jadex Summary 263 Appendix H: JACK Summary 266 References 269 Index 293 List of Figures 1.1 Examples of AgentSpeak Plans for a Bomb-Disarming Robot. 9 1.2 BNF of the AgentSpeak Extension Interpreted hy Jason, 11 1.3 An Interpretation Cycle of an AgentSpeak Program [143], 15 1.4 Jason IDE.