Toward a Suite of Performatives Based Upon Joint Intention Theory

Abstract

Agent communication languages defined using joint intention theory have enjoyed a long research history. A number of performatives have been defined and refined in this literature with particular emphasis on the basic performatives of REQUEST and INFORM, which subsequently have many subtle versions. Even these less common performatives have been extended and refined multiple times. In many cases the underlying definitions upon which the various performatives are based have been modified as well. While working toward implementing a multi-agent system with communications based upon joint intention semantics, it quickly became apparent that it was going to be difficult to identify a single set of performatives with correct and compatible definitions. We also realized that a set of performatives with enough breadth to cover the needs of real fielded multi-agent systems has not yet been defined. We intend this paper to provide in a single place a broadly applicable set of compatible performatives defined using joint intention semantics. Many of the performatives previously defined in the literature have been brought to the same semantic basis while we have also defined a number of new performatives to increase the breadth of performatives available to agent developers.