Abstract
Algebraic specification techniques can be applied to many aspects of software agents and multi-agent systems. This paper presents an algebraic framework, the Ψ- calculus, suitable for specifying the computations of complex agents that have a sense–compute–act computation cycle and that employ stored plan execution as the basis of behaviour generation. The framework provides a complete operational semantics of a plan-based programming language for such agents, covering all aspects of computation from the execution of basic plan steps through to the top-level control cycle which determines how external interactions occur. The semantics is specified compactly in process algebraic style by a hierarchy of rewrite rules, and has safety, guarantee and compositionality properties that facilitate reasoning about agent program behaviour.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Berry, G., Boudol, G.: The chemical abstract machine. Theor. Comput. Sci. 96(1), 217–248 (1992)
Bloom, B., Istrail, S., Meyer, A.R.: Bisimulation can’t be traced. J. ACM 43, 232–268 (1995)
Bratman, M.E.: Intentions, Plans, and Practical Reason. Harvard University Press (1987)
Bratman, M.E., Israel, D.J., Pollack, M.E.: Plans and resource-bounded practical reasoning. Comput. Intel. 4(4), 349–355 (1988)
Clark, K.L., McCabe, F.G.: Go! for multi-threaded deliberative agents. In: Proceedings of the AAMAS’03 Workshop on Declarative Agent Languages and Technologies, Melbourne, Australia (2003)
de Simone, R.: Higher-level synchronising devices in Meije-SCCS. Theor. Comput. Sci. 37, 245–267 (1985)
Dennett, D.C.: The intentional stance. MIT Press (1987)
Dershowitz, N., Jouannaud, J.-P.: Rewrite systems. In: van Leeuwen, J. (ed.) Handbook of Theoretical Computer Science vol. B, pp. 243–320, MIT Press/Elsevier (1990)
d’Inverno, M., Kinny, D., Luck, M., Wooldridge, M.: A formal specification of dMARS. In: Proceedings of ATAL-97, Intelligent Agents IV, Providence, RI, 1997. Springer LNAI 1365
Georgeff, M.P., Ingrand, F.: Decision-making in an embedded reasoning system. In: Proceedings of IJCAI-89, pp. 972–978, Detroit, MI (1989)
Gerlenter, D.: Generative communication in linda. ACM Trans. Prog. Lang. Syst. 7(1), 80–112 (1985)
Harel, D., Kahana, C.: On statecharts with overlapping. ACM Trans. Software Eng. Math. 1(4) (1992)
Hindriks, K.V., de Boer, F.S., van der Hoek, W., Meyer, J.-J.Ch.: Control structures of rule-based agent languages. In: Proceedings of ATAL-98, Intelligent Agents V, pp. 381–396, Paris, 1998. Springer LNAI 1555
Kinny, D.: The Distributed Multi-Agent Reasoning System Architecture and Language Specification. Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute, Melbourne, Australia (1993)
Kinny, D.: A framework for multi-agent systems development. In: Proceedings of Intelligent Agent Technology: Systems, Methodologies and Tools, pp. 18–27, Hong Kong (1999)
Kinny, D.: Fundamentals of agent computation theory: semantics. PhD thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia (2001)
Kinny, D.: Reliable agent computation: an algebraic perspective. In: Proceedings of the 4th Pacific Rim Workshop on MultiAgent Systems, Taipei, Taiwan, Springer (2001)
Kinny, D.: ViP: A visual programming language for plan execution systems. In: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS-02), Bologna, Italy, ACM Press (2002)
Lesperance, Y., Levesque, H.J., Lin, F., Marcu, D., Reiter, R., Scherl, R.B.: Foundations of a logical approach to agent programming. In: Proceedings of ATAL-95, Intelligent Agents II, pp. 331–346, Montréal, 1995. Springer LNAI 1037
Manna, Z., Pnueli, A.: The Temporal Logic of Reactive and Concurrent Systems. Springer (1992)
Meseguer, J.: Conditional rewriting logic as a unified model of concurrency. Theor. Comput. Sci. 96(1), 73–155 (1992)
Milner, R.: The polyadic π-calculus: A tutorial. Technical Report LFCS report 91-180, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh (1991)
Müller, J.P.: The right agent (architecture) to do the right thing. In: Proceedings of ATAL-98, Intelligent Agents V, pp. 211–225, Paris, 1998. Springer LNAI 1555
Plotkin, G.: A structural approach to operational semantics. Technical Report DAIMI FN-19, Aarhus University (1981)
Prasad, K.V.S.: A calculus of broadcasting systems. Sci. Comput. Prog. 25, (1995)
Rao, A.: AgentSpeak(L): BDI agents speak out in a logical computable language. In: Proceedings of MAAMAW ‘96, Agents Breaking Away, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 1996. Springer LNAI 1038
Rao, A.S., Georgeff, M.P.: Modeling rational agents within a BDI-architecture. In: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, KR ‘91, pp. 473–484, Cambridge, MA (1991)
van Glabbeek, R.J.: The meaning of negative premises in transition system specifications II. An extended abstract also appears in the Proceedings of the 23rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming, ICALP’96 (LNCS 1099), Technical Report 95–16, Department of Computer Science, Stanford University (1996)
Verhoef, C.: A congruence theorem of structured operational semantics with predicates and negative premises. Nordic J. Comput. 2, 274–302 (1995)
Wagner, G.: A logical and operational model of scalable knowledge- and perception-based agents. In: Proceedings of MAAMAW ‘96, Agents Breaking Away, pp. 26–41, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 1996. Springer LNAI 1038
Widom, J., Ceri, S.: Active Database Systems. Morgan Kaufmann (1996)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kinny, D. Algebraic specification of agent computation. AAECC 16, 77–111 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00200-005-0172-1
Received:
Revised:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00200-005-0172-1