Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Component-Based Standardisation of Agent Communication

  • Conference paper
Declarative Agent Languages and Technologies V (DALT 2007)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 4897))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

We address the problem of standardising the semantics of agent communication. The diversity of existing approaches suggests that no single agent communication language can satisfactorily cater for all scenarios. However, standardising the way in which different languages are specified is a viable alternative. We describe a standard meta-language in which the rules of an arbitrary institution can be specified. In this way different agent communication languages can be given a common grounding. From this starting point, we describe a component based approach to standardisation, whereby a standard can develop by adding component sets of rules; for example to handle various classes of dialogs and normative relations. This approach is illustrated by example. Eventually we envisage different agent institutions publishing a specification of their rules by simply specifying the subset of standard components in use in that institution. Agents implementing the meta-language can then interoperate between institutions by downloading appropriate components.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Agerri, R., Alonso, E.: Semantics and Pragmatics for Agent Communication. In: Bento, C., Cardoso, A., Dias, G. (eds.) EPIA 2005. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 3808, Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  2. Artikis, A., Sergot, M., Pitt, J.V.: Specifying Norm-Governed Computational Societies. Technical Report 06-5, Dept. of Computing, Imperial College, London, UK (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Austin, J.L.: How To Do Things With Words. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1962)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Bentahar, J., Moulin, B., Meyer, J.-J.C., Chaib-Draa, B.: A Computational Model for Conversation Policies for Agent Communication. In: Leite, J.A., Torroni, P. (eds.) Computational Logic in Multi-Agent Systems. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 3487, Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Chaib-Draa, B., Labrie, M.-A., Bergeron, M., Pasquier, P.: An Agent Communication Language Based on Dialogue Games and Sustained by Social Commitments. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 13(1), 61–95 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Chopra, A.K., Singh, M.P.: Contextualizing Commitment Protocols. In: AAMAS. Procs. 5th. Int’l Conf. on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, ACM Press, New York (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Cohen, P.R., Levesque, H.J.: Communicative Actions for Artificial Agents. In: Int’l Conf. on MASs, pp. 65–72. MIT Press, Cambridge (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  8. FIPA. [FIPA OC00003] FIPA 97 Part 2 Version 2.0: Agent Communication Language Specification. In: Website of the Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (1997), http://www.fipa.org/specs/fipa2000.tar.gz

  9. Fornara, N., Vigano, F., Colombetti, M.: Agent communication and artificial institutions. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems  (2006), doi:10.1007/s10458-006-0017-8

    Google Scholar 

  10. Garcia-Camino, A., Rodriguez-Aguilar, J., Sierra, C., Vasconcelos, W.: A Rule-based Approach to Norm-Oriented Programming of Electronic Institutions. SIGEcomm Exchanges 5(5) (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Garcia-Camino, A., Rodriguez-Aguilar, J.-A., Noriega, P.: Implementing Norms in Electronic Institutions. In: AAMAS. Procs. 4th Int’l Conf. on Autonomous Agents & Multiagent Systems, ACM Press, New York (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Guerin, F., Pitt, J.V.: A semantic framework for specifying agent communication languages. In: ICMAS 2000. Fourth International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems, pp. 395–396. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Jones, A.J.I., Sergot, M.J.: A formal characterisation of institutionalised power. Journal of the IGPL 4(3), 429–445 (1996)

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  14. Labrou, Y.: Semantics for an agent communication language. PhD thesis, Baltimore, MD: University of Maryland Graduate School (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Labrou, Y., Finin, T.: A semantics approach for kqml – a general purpose communication language for software agents. In: CIKM 1994. Third International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management, pp. 447–455 (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Labrou, Y., Finin, T., Peng, Y.: The current landscape of agent communication languages (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Loui, R.P.: Process and policy: Resource-bounded nondemonstrative reasoning. Computational Intelligence 14(1), 1 (1998)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  18. Manna, Z., Pnueli, A.: Temporal Verification of Reactive Systems (Safety), vol. 2. Springer, New York (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Mayfield, J., Labrou, Y., Finin, T.: Desiderata for agent communication languages. In: AAAI 1995 Spring Symposium. Proceedings of the AAAI Symposium on Information Gathering from Heterogeneous, Distributed Environments, pp. 347–360. Stanford University, Stanford (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Pitt, J., Kamara, L., Sergot, M., Artikis, A.: Formalization of a voting protocol for virtual organizations. In: AAMAS 2005. Proceedings of the Fourth International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, Utrecht, ACM Press, New York (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Searle, J.R.: What is a speech act? In: Martinich, A.P. (ed.) Philosophy of Language, 3rd edn., Oxford University Press, Oxford (1965)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Singh, M.: Agent communication languages: Rethinking the principles. IEEE Computer 31(12), 40–47 (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Singh, M.: A social semantics for agent communication languages. In: IJCAI Workshop on Agent Communication Languages, Springer, Berlin (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Venkatraman, M., Singh, M.P.: Verifying compliance with commitment protocols: Enabling open web-based multiagent systems. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 2(3), 217–236 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Verdicchio, M., Colombetti, M.: A logical model of social commitment for agent communication. In: Proceedings of the second international joint conference on Autonomous agents and multiagent systems table of contents, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 528–535 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Yolum, P.: Towards design tools for protocol development. In: AAMAS 2005. Proceedings of the fourth international joint conference on Autonomous agents and multiagent systems, pp. 99–105. ACM Press, New York (2005)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Computing Science, Univ. of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3UE, UK

    Frank Guerin & Wamberto Vasconcelos

Authors
  1. Frank Guerin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Wamberto Vasconcelos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Matteo Baldoni Tran Cao Son M. Birna van Riemsdijk Michael Winikoff

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Guerin, F., Vasconcelos, W. (2008). Component-Based Standardisation of Agent Communication. In: Baldoni, M., Son, T.C., van Riemsdijk, M.B., Winikoff, M. (eds) Declarative Agent Languages and Technologies V. DALT 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 4897. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77564-5_14

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77564-5_14

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-77563-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-77564-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation