Abstract
In open distributed multi-agent systems, agents often coordinate using standardized agent communications. Thus, representing agent conversations is an important aspect of multi-agent applications. Lately, Petri nets have been found to provide certain advantages comparing to other representation approaches. Radically different approaches using Petri nets to represent multi-agent interactions have been proposed, and yet relative strengths and weaknesses of these approaches have not been examined. Moreover, no approach was shown to provide a comprehensive coverage of advanced standardized communication aspects such as those found in FIPA interaction protocols. This paper presents (i) an analysis of existing Petri net representation approaches in terms of their scalability and appropriateness for different tasks; (ii) a novel scalable representation approach, particularly suited for monitoring open systems; and (iii) a skeletal procedure for semi-automatically converting FIPA interaction protocols to their Petri net representations. We argue that the representation we propose is comprehensive, in the sense that it can represent all FIPA interaction protocol features.
This research was supported in part by BSF grant #2002401.
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
AUML site, Agent UML (2004), at http://www.auml.org
Cost, R.S., Chen, Y., Finin, T., Labrou, Y., Peng, Y.: Using Coloured Petri Nets for a Conversation Modeling. In: Dignum, F., Greaves, M. (eds.) Issues in Agent Communications, pp. 178–192. Springer, Heidelberg (2000)
Cranefield, S., Purvis, M., Nowostawski, M., Hwang, P.: Ontologies for interaction protocols. In: Proceedings of AAMAS 2002 (2002)
FIPA Specifications (2004), at http://www.fipa.org/specifications/index.html
Gutnik, G., Kaminka, G.A.: A comprehensive Petri net representation for multi-agent conversations. MAVERICK Technical Report 2004/1, Bar-Ilan University (2004), at http://www.cs.biu.ac.il/~maverick/tech-reports/
Jensen, K.: Coloured Petri Nets. Basic Concepts. In: Analysis Methods and Practical Use. Springer, Heidelberg (1997)
Kaminka, G.A., Pynadath, D.V., Tambe, M.: Monitoring Teams by Overhearing: A Multi-Agent Plan-Recognition Approach. JAIR 17, 83–135 (2002)
Lin, F., Norrie, D.H., Shen, W., Kremer, R.: A schema-based approach to specifying conversation policies. In: Dignum, F., Greaves, M. (eds.) Issues in Agent Communications, pp. 193–204. Springer, Heidelberg (2000)
Mazouzi, H., Fallah-Seghrouchni, A.E., Haddad, S.: Open protocol design for complex interactions in multi-agent systems. In: Proceedings of AAMAS 2002 (2002)
Nowostawski, M., Purvis, M., Cranefield, S.: A layered approach for modeling agent conversations. In: Proceedings of Workshop on Infrastructure for Agents, MAS and Scalable MAS, Montreal, Canada, pp. 163–170 (2001)
Odell, J., Parunak, H.V.D., Bauer, B.: Agent UML: A formalism for specifying multi-agent interactions. In: Ciancarini, P., Wooldridge, M. (eds.) Agent-Oriented Software Engineering, pp. 91–103. Springer, Berlin (2001)
Paurobally, S., Cunningham, J., Jennings, N.R.: Ensuring consistency in the joint beliefs of interacting agents. In: Proceedings of AAMAS 2003 (2003)
Poutakidis, D., Padgham, L., Winikoff, M.: Debugging multi-agent systems using design artifacts. In: Proceedings of AAMAS 2002 (2002)
Purvis, M.K., Hwang, P., Cranefield, S.J., Schievink, M.: Interaction Protocols for a Network of Environmental Problem Solvers. In: Proceedings of iEMSs 2002 (2002)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Gutnik, G., Kaminka, G. (2005). A Scalable Petri Net Representation of Interaction Protocols for Overhearing. In: van Eijk, R.M., Huget, MP., Dignum, F. (eds) Agent Communication. AC 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 3396. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-32258-0_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-32258-0_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-25015-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-32258-0
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)