Abstract
Agent interactions play a crucial role in Multi-Agent Systems. Consequently graphical formalisms, such as Agent UML, have been adopted that allow agent developers to abstract away from implementation details and focus on the core aspects of such interactions. Agent Factory (AF) is a cohesive framework that supports the development and deployment of agent-oriented applications. This paper introduces the Visual Protocol Editor (VIPER), a graphical tool that allows users to diagrammatically construct agent interaction protocols. These protocols are subsequently realised through AF-APL, the purpose-built Agent-Oriented Programming language that sits at the heart of AF. In particular, we focus upon the design of interaction protocols using a subset of Agent UML. To this end, we specify a number of tools and an associated process through which developers can supplement these protocols with application- and domain-dependant AF-APL rules to create useful agents that adhere to the protocol constraints.
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Rooney, C.F.B., Collier, R.W., O’Hare, G.M.P. (2004). VIPER: A VIsual Protocol EditoR. In: De Nicola, R., Ferrari, GL., Meredith, G. (eds) Coordination Models and Languages. COORDINATION 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2949. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-24634-3_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-24634-3_21
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