SARL
SARL is a general-purpose agent-oriented language. SARL aims at providing the fundamental abstractions for dealing with concurrency, distribution, interaction, decentralization, reactivity, autonomy and dynamic reconfiguration. These high-level features are now considered as the major requirements for an easy and practical implementation of modern complex software applications. We are convinced that the agent-oriented paradigm holds the keys to effectively meet this challenge.
Considering the variety of existing approaches and meta-models in the field of agent-oriented engineering and more generally multi-agent systems, our approach remains as generic as possible and highly extensible to easily integrate new concepts and features. The language is platform- and architecture-independent.
This course presents SARL’s main concepts and provides an introduction to developing MAS with SARL.
Holonic Multiagent System: From Modeling to Implementation
Complex systems are often characterized by networks of numerous interactiving entities. Their behavior is the result of the non-linear aggregation of the local interactions of theirs components. Multi-Agents Systems have become a natural tool for modeling, simulating and programming complex systems. Indeed, Multi-Agents Systems are composed of autonomous, reactive, proactive and interacting entities called agents engaged in the realization of a joint goals. Both types of systems are notably studied by their organization dynamics and the emergence of organizational structures. However, in Complex Systems we usually find a great number of entities in interaction, acting at different levels of abstraction.
Analysis and modeling techniques able to represent several levels of abstraction and computation models that are capable to self-organize and adapt to environmental adversities are needed to overcome this issue. Among the possible solutions, Holonic Multi-Agent Systems (HMAS) are a promising paradigm. HMAS are based upon self-similar entities, called holons, which define an organizational structure called holarchy. HMAS have shown to be a convenient way to engineer complex and open systems in various application domains.
In this talk, after a brief introduction of HMAS, we will present an organizational modeling framework, the ASPECS methodology, and we will discuss how to implement Holonic Multiagent Systems. Finally, some interesting areas for future research will be presented.
Sebastian Rodriguez , Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, Argentina
Practical Reasoning and BDI Agents
In this part of the course, we will explore the foundations of the theory of practical reasoning and how it has influenced a popular AI model of agency that takes its inspiration from the processes that seem to take place as we decide what to do.
BDI Agent-oriented Programming and Software Engineering
We will review the major aspects of designing and developing multi-agent systems under the Belief-Desire-Intention programming paradigm. We will cover the identification of system goals, agent capabilities, data sources, agent interactions, use cases, scenarios, agent types and agent interaction diagrams, and how these will inform a concrete BDI application built from beliefs, events, messages, plans, etc. While the course relies on the PROMETHEUS agent methodology and the Java-based JACK agent development environment (both with roots in Melbourne, Australia), the concepts and features discussed are shared across other similar approaches and technologies.
Behavior Composition: Synthesis of Devices and Agents
With computers now present in everyday devices like mobile phones, credit cards, cars and planes or places like homes, offices and factories, the trend is to build embedded complex systems from a collection of simple components. Thus a complex room entertainment system for a smart house can be ``realised'' (i.e., implemented) by suitably coordinating the behaviours (i.e., the operational logic) of hundreds (or thousands) of simple devices and artifacts---lights, phones, blinds, game consoles, a vacuum cleaner, video cameras, TVs, a floor cleaning robot, etc.---installed in the house. Such embedded systems can provide services that range from simple tasks, such as ``turn on the lights in the bedroom,'' to more complex ones, such as ``bring me a cup of coffee'' or ``handle house intruder'' (by tracking and taking pictures of the intruder, toggling lights rapidly, and alerting the owner by email or phone).
The problem of automatically synthesising, that is, building, such an embedded controller-coordinator for a given desired target complex system is called the behaviour composition problem and is the focus of this talk. The composition synthesis task is important in that it can be recast in a variety of forms within several sub-areas of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science, including robot ecologies, ubiquitous robots or intelligent spaces, web-services, component-based development (CBD), agent programming, and automated planning. The talk will cover the standard formalization of the problem, several extensions proposed in recent literature, and the main computational techniques to solve it. The progress and attention achieved in the last few years on behavior composition draws from recent important results in areas such as verification, reasoning about action, and generalized planning, among others.
Sebastian Sardina , RMIT University, Australia
