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International Workshop on Programming Multi-Agent Systems

ProMAS 2004: Programming Multi-Agent Systems pp 104–125Cite as

Debugging Agent Behavior in an Implemented Agent System

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 3346))

Abstract

As agent systems become more sophisticated, there is a growing need for agent-oriented debugging, maintenance, and testing methods and tools. This paper presents the Tracing Method and accompanying Tracer tool to help debug agents by explaining actual agent behavior in the implemented system. The Tracing Method captures dynamic run-time data by logging actual agent behavior, creates modeled interpretations in terms of agent concepts (e.g. beliefs, goals, and intentions), and analyzes those models to gain insight into both the design and the implemented agent behavior. An implementation of the Tracing Method is the Tracer tool, which is demonstrated in a target-monitoring domain. The Tracer tool can help (1) determine if agent design specifications are correctly implemented and guide debugging efforts and (2) discover and examine motivations for agent behaviors such as beliefs, communications, and intentions.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Laboratory for Intelligent Processes and Systems, Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA

    Dung N. Lam & K. Suzanne Barber

Authors
  1. Dung N. Lam
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  2. K. Suzanne Barber
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Durham, DH1 3LE, Durham, UK

    Rafael H. Bordini

  2. Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80.089, 3508, Utrecht, TB, The Netherlands

    Mehdi Dastani

  3. Clausthal University of Technology, Julius-Albert-Str. 4, 38678, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany

    Jürgen Dix

  4. Laboratoire Informatique de Paris 6, 104 avenue du Président Kennedy, 75016, Paris, France

    Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni

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© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Lam, D.N., Barber, K.S. (2005). Debugging Agent Behavior in an Implemented Agent System. In: Bordini, R.H., Dastani, M., Dix, J., El Fallah Seghrouchni, A. (eds) Programming Multi-Agent Systems. ProMAS 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 3346. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-32260-3_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-32260-3_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-24559-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-32260-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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