Abstract
An autonomous agent in a MAS involves in a protocol – more exactly in a conversation following the rules of a protocol – in order to reach objectives, some ones shared with all other participants, some others specific and private. We assume a MAS architecture where each conversation is monitored by a middleware component – a conversation moderator – that guarantees that the shared objectives will be reached. This paper addresses the means an agent requires to be able to exercise its autonomy and reach its own objectives in the course of conversations. The first step is to define these objectives and this leads to distinguish the strategic and tactic levels in agents’ behaviours. The strategic level must be handled by the agent itself; the required capabilities are abstract and relevant for larges categories of similar protocols. Once a strategy is set for a conversation, its application at the tactic level can be delegated to a middleware component, called a participation, that intervenes in the conversation on the behalf of the agent. This component is specific to the role held by the agent and it is tailored to make the best use of the subtleties of the protocol’s rules. This approach brings many engineering benefits.
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Sibertin-Blanc, C., Hameurlain, N. (2005). Participation Components for Holding Roles in Multiagent Systems Protocols. In: Gleizes, MP., Omicini, A., Zambonelli, F. (eds) Engineering Societies in the Agents World V. ESAW 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 3451. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11423355_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11423355_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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