物件導向軟體之架構(Object-Oriented Software Construction)探討

An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems.

The Transmission Control Protocol.

Preface. 1 Introduction. 1.1 Autonomous Agents. 1.2 Characteristics of Agents. 1.3 Multi-Agent Systems. 1.4 Hello World! 2 The BDI Agent Model. 2.1 Agent-Oriented Programming. 2.2 Practical Reasoning. 2.3 A Computational Model of BDI Practical Reasoning. 2.4 The Procedural Reasoning System. 2.5 Agent Communication. 3 The Jason Agent Programming Language. 3.1 Beliefs. 3.2 Goals. 3.3 Plans. 3.4 Example: A Complete Agent Program. 3.5 Exercises. 4 Jason Interpreter. 4.1 The Reasoning Cycle. 4.2 Plan Failure. 4.3 Interpreter Configuration and Execution Modes. 4.4 Pre-Defined Plan Annotations. 4.5 Exercises. 5 Environments. 5.1 Support for Defining Simulated Environments. 5.2 Example: Running a System of Multiple Situated Agents. 5.3 Exercises. 6 Communication and Interaction. 6.1 Available Performatives. 6.2 Informal Semantics of Receiving Messages. 6.3 Example: Contract Net Protocol. 6.4 Exercises. 7 User-Defined Components. 7.1 Defining New Internal Actions. 7.2 Customising the Agent Class. 7.3 Customising the Overall Architecture. 7.4 Customising the Belief Base. 7.5 Pre-Processing Directives. 7.6 Exercises. 8 Advanced Goal-Based Programming. 8.1 BDI Programming. 8.2 Declarative (Achievement) Goal Patterns. 8.3 Commitment Strategy Patterns. 8.4 Other Useful Patterns. 8.5 Pre-Processing Directives for Plan Patterns. 9 Case Studies. 9.1 Case Study I: Gold Miners. 9.2 Case Study II: Electronic Bookstore. 10 Formal Semantics. 10.1 Semantic Rules. 10.2 Semantics of Message Exchange in a Multi-Agent System. 10.3 Semantic Rules for Receiving Messages. 10.4 Semantics of the BDI Modalities for AgentSpeak. 11 Conclusions. 11.1 Jason and Agent-Oriented Programming. 11.2 Ongoing Work and Related Research. 11.3 General Advice on Programming Style and Practice. A Reference Guide. A.1 EBNF for the Agent Language. A.2 EBNF for the Multi-Agent Systems Language. A.3 Standard Internal Actions. A.4 Pre-Defined Annotations. A.5 Pre-Processing Directives. A.6 Interpreter Configuration. Bibliography.

Programming Multi-Agent Systems in AgentSpeak using Jason (Wiley Series in Agent Technology)

Object-oriented analysis

This chapter presents Jadex, a software framework for the creation of goal-oriented agents following the belief-desire-intention (BDI) model. The Jadex project aims to make the development of agent based systems as easy as possible without sacrificing the expressive power of the agent paradigm. The objective is to build up a rational agent layer that sits on top of a middleware agent infrastructure and allows for intelligent agent construction using sound software engineering foundations. Fostering a smooth transition from traditional distributed systems to the development of multi-agent systems, well established object-oriented concepts and technologies such as Java and XML are employed wherever applicable. Moreover, the Jadex reasoning engine tries to overcome traditional limitations of BDI systems by introducing explicit goals. This allows goal deliberation mechanisms being realized and additionally facilitates application development by making results from goal-oriented analysis and design easily transferable to the implementation layer. The system is freely available under LGPL license and provides extensive documentation as well as illustrative example applications.

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Jadex: A BDI Reasoning Engine

INTELLIGENT AGENTS ARE A MODELLING PARADIGM, BASED ON THE NOTION OF AGENTS WITH MENTAL STATES. THE AGENT METAPHOR IS NOWADAYS USED IN MANY RESEARCH AND INDUSTRY PROJECTS, AND SEVERAL GENERIC AGENT PLATFORMS ARE AVAILABLE. NEVERTHELESS, THERE IS A GAP BETWEEN PLATFORMS CONCENTRATING ON AGENT COMMUNI- CATION INFRASTRUCTURE AND PLATFORMS CONCERNED WITH THE REPRESENTATION OF INTERNAL AGENT CONCEPTS. THIS ARTICLE PRESENTS AN APPROACH TO BRIDGE THIS GAP: JADEX, AN ADD- ON TO THE WIDELY USED JADE AGENT PLATFORM. THE ADD-ON FOLLOWS THE BDI ARCHITEC- TURE, A WELL-KNOWN MODEL FOR REPRESENTING MENTALISTIC CONCEPTS IN THE SYSTEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION. THE ARTICLE PROVIDES AN OVERVIEW OF THE BDI MODEL, AND THE DESIGN AND REALIZATION IN JADEX, AS WELL AS THE INTEGRATION OF THE ADD-ON INTO THE JADE AGENT FRAMEWORK.

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Jadex: Implementing a BDI-Infrastructure for JADE Agents

Agent-oriented system development aims to simplify the construction of complex systems by introducing a natural abstraction layer on top of the object-oriented paradigm composed of autonomous interacting actors. One main advantage of the agent metaphor is that an agent can be described similar to the characteristics of the human mind consisting of several interrelated concepts which constitute the internal agent structure. General consensus exists that the Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) model is well suited for describing an agent's mental state. The desires (goals) of an agent represent its motivational stance and are the main source for the agent's actions. Therefore, the representation and handling of goals play a central role in goal-oriented requirements analysis and modelling techniques. Nevertheless, currently available BDI agent platforms mostly abstract from goals and do not represent them explicitly. This leads to a gap between design and implementation with respect to the available concepts. In this paper a generic representation of goal types, properties, and lifecycles is developed in consideration of existing goal-oriented requirements engineering and modelling techniques. The objective of this proposal is to bridge the gap between agent specification and implementation of goals and is backed by experiences gained from developing a generic agent framework.

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Goal representation for BDI agent systems

Nowadays a multitude of different agent platforms exist that aim to support the software engineer in developing multi-agent systems. Nevertheless, most of these platforms concentrate on specific objectives and therefore cannot address all important aspects of agent technology equally well. A broad distinction in this field can be made between middleware- and reasoning-oriented systems. The first category is mostly concerned with FIPA-related issues like interoperability, security and maintainability whereas the latter one emphasizes rationality and goal-directedness. In this paper the Jadex reasoning engine is presented, which supports cognitive agents by exploiting the BDI model and is realized as adaptable extension for agent middleware such as the widely used JADE platform.

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Jadex: A BDI-Agent System Combining Middleware and Reasoning

More and more effort is made to provide methodologies for the development of agent-based systems. Awareness has grown that these are necessary to develop high quality agent systems. In recent years a number of proposals have been given. Based on our experiences we argue that a complete evaluation of methodologies cannot be done without considering target platforms, because the differences between available implementations are too fundamental to be ignored. In order to conduct a suitable comparison we present a flexible evaluation framework that takes platform specific criteria into account. Part of this framework is a procedure to derive relevant criteria from the evaluated platforms and methodologies. In combination with a set of platform dependent and independent criteria our framework allows evaluation of the appropriateness of methodologies with respect to platforms. As a consequence, also the suitability of methodologies for an individual platform, or vice versa of several platforms for an individual methodology can be examined. To show the usefulness of our proposal, we evaluate the suitability of different methodologies for an example platform.

Alexander Pokahr

Papers

Jadex: A BDI Reasoning Engine

Jadex: Implementing a BDI-Infrastructure for JADE Agents

Goal representation for BDI agent systems

Jadex: A BDI-Agent System Combining Middleware and Reasoning

Evaluation of agent-oriented software methodologies: Examination of the gap between modeling and platform