Agent Communication Language Research Articles

Review of the Mathematical Model, Properties, Classes and other Features of Software Agent Development

Reviewed: features of the definition of an agent and a software agent, its dimensions and other components; models of software agents and its properties; classification of software agents by architecture, communication principles and agent communication languages (ACL), as well as existing platforms for their development (e.g., JADE, SPADE); multi-agent system (MAS); behavior types of SPADE software agent based on the example of one of the platforms (including for subsequent experiments to compare behaviors in terms of hardware resources usage). Minor adjustments have been made to the syntax of mathematical expressions describing the agent model, and a revision of the formalized definitions of agent property set has been proposed; a formalized description of the model of studied agent type is determined.

Evolution analysis of corporate governance structure based on blockchain network security and complex adaptive system

At present, the corporate governance structure of domestic enterprises is not sound, which directly affects the development of enterprise technological innovation. This study mainly discusses the evolution of corporate governance structure based on the complex adaptive system of blockchain network security. The blockchain is actually very similar to the accounting book. The account book formed by the summary of the accounting vouchers in each month of the enterprise is equivalent to each block, and the account book formed by the sequential connection is equivalent to the block chain formed by concatenating the blocks. This article believes that in the corporate governance system, the maximum fairness and the highest efficiency are always the basic goals pursued by the system, and the balance between fairness and efficiency is the basic principle. The research content of the corporate governance system mainly involves a series of issues such as the allocation of rights and responsibilities of all stakeholders, the arrangement of residual distribution rights, and the way of participating in governance with the principal-agent relationship between the internal owners and managers of the enterprise as the core. In the company's network communication structure, the first layer is the stakeholder level, that is, the interactive protocol layer (knowledge layer) between multiple agents. The specific technology is realized through networked audio and video. The second layer is the communication language layer between Agents. Define the grammar and semantics of the Agent communication language, and realize the message transfer between Agents. The third layer is the data transmission mechanism (communication layer) between Agents. The Internet (CORBA/Java) is used to realize the establishment of agent object communication between the server and the client, and the data transmission between Agents is realized through the TCP/IP protocol. The fourth layer is the data layer. The database structure is used to realize data storage, and the data storage, query and other functions are realized through database access. The fifth layer is the support layer. Provide physical connection and specific operation platform for company governance system data transmission and exchange, and other management software and application programs. The amount of funds raised for scientific and technological activities of large and medium-sized industrial enterprises rose from 104.665 billion yuan in 2017 to 330.079 billion yuan in 2019, an increase of 215%. This research will help the company's intelligent management.

Modelling dynamic behaviour of agents in a multiagent world: Logical analysis of Wh-questions and answers

Abstract In a multiagent and multi-cultural world, the fine-grained analysis of agents’ dynamic behaviour, i.e. of their activities, is essential. Dynamic activities are actions that are characterized by an agent who executes the action and by other participants of the action. Wh-questions on the participants of the actions pose a difficult particular challenge because the variability of the types of possible answers to such questions is huge. To deal with the problem, we propose the analysis and classification of Wh-questions apt for agents’ communication in a multiagent system (MAS). Our proposal of such a system consists of agents who communicate with their fellow agents by messaging so that each autonomous agent, though resource-bounded, can make less or more rational decisions to meet its own and collective goals. In addition, by communicating with other fellow agents and their environment, agents can learn new concepts and enrich their ontology so that their behaviour is dynamic. We aim to make a general proposal of the system so that the ‘envelope’ of agents’ messages can be formalized in any MAS standard, be it The Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents - Agent Communication Language (FIPA-ACL) or Knowledge Query and Manipulation Language (KQML). Yet, the content of messages is encoded in a formalized natural language. To this end, we apply Transparent Intensional Logic (TIL) with its procedural semantics which is particularly apt for a fine-grained analysis in which all the semantically salient features of natural language can be plausibly formalized. In this paper, we concentrate on analysing the content of query messages, particularly the content of those that encode Wh-questions and the answers to them. We also summarize TIL deduction system that makes it possible to answer such questions in an intelligent way. Linguists distinguish several subtypes of Wh-questions. Though the linguistic classification is helpful, it is not always suitable for agents’ communication and reasoning. We need the classification based on a logical analysis of Wh-questions so that the agents can infer possible answers to such questions rather than only looking for them by keywords. This paper aims to apply an appropriate classification of the logical types of Wh-questions and the analysis of such questions; we concentrate in particular on questions concerning the participants of activities. The application of these results to the analysis of processes and events based on verb valency frames is another novelty of the paper.

Proportional‐integral‐derivative controller‐based self‐healing of distribution system using wireless sensor networks in smart grid

SummaryThe grid is a platform of distributing the power to the consumers; if an automatic controlling and monitoring are connected with the grid, it referred to as smart grid (SG). Self‐healing is the approach of restoring the unaffected areas without affecting the system performance. The term restoration is if a fault occurs on a distribution system, it must be isolated; after that, it can be reconfigured to restore the unaffected areas. The distribution system cannot work as efficient without the self‐healing approach because it will affect the unaffected areas without any proper reason. This paper proposed a multiagent system with controlled voltage (MAS‐CV) along with self‐healing of wireless sensor network (WSN) with proportional integral derivative (PID) controller in smart grid. At initial, the magnetic flux sensors are placed in the pole transformer for detection of flux leakage. The sensed data are transferred to the distribution grid, where the multiagent system (MAS) is established to carrying out the load restoration process (i.e., self‐healing). Connection agents (CA), monitor agent (MA), main feeder agent (MFA), backup feeder agent (BFA), supporting feeder agent (SFA), and local agent (LA) are the agents presented in the paper. Each agent is communicating via agent communication language (ACL) for the restoration process; after all the loads are restored, the voltage drop of the system is controlled by the proportional integral derivative controller. The simulation results of the proposed method show that the restoration of loads is improved and number of switching is reduced with improved data transmission. Thus, the cost of the proposed method is reduced by the reduced switches. At last, the controlled power from the distribution grid is send to the consumer.

Discovering Hidden Mental States in Open Multi-Agent Systems by Leveraging Multi-Protocol Regularities with Machine Learning.

The agent paradigm and multi-agent systems are a perfect match for the design of smart cities because of some of their essential features such as decentralization, openness, and heterogeneity. However, these major advantages also come at a great cost. Since agents’ mental states are hidden when the implementation is not known and available, intelligent services of smart cities cannot leverage information from them. We contribute with a proposal for the analysis and prediction of hidden agents’ mental states in a multi-agent system using machine learning methods that learn from past agents’ interactions. The approach employs agent communication languages, which is a core property of these multi-agent systems, to infer theories and models about agents’ mental states that are not accessible in an open system. These mental state models can be used on their own or combined to build protocol models, allowing agents (and their developers) to predict future agents’ behavior for various tasks such as testing and debugging them or making communications more efficient, which is essential in an ambient intelligence environment. This paper’s main contribution is to explore the problem of building these agents’ mental state models not from one, but from several interaction protocols, even when the protocols could have different purposes and provide distinct ambient intelligence services.

Efficient Performative Actions for E-Commerce Agents

Abstract The foundational features of multi-agent systems are communication and interaction with other agents. To achieve these features, agents have to transfer messages in the predefined format and semantics. The communication among these agents takes place with the help of ACL (Agent Communication Language). ACL is a predefined language for communication among agents that has been standardised by the FIPA (Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agent). FIPA-ACL defines different performatives for communication among the agents. These performatives are generic, and it becomes computationally expensive to use them for a specific domain like e-commerce. These performatives do not define the exact meaning of communication for any specific domain like e-commerce. In the present research, we introduced new performatives specifically for e-commerce domain. Our designed performatives are based on FIPA-ACL so that they can still support communication within diverse agent platforms. The proposed performatives are helpful in modelling e-commerce negotiation protocol applications using the paradigm of multi-agent systems for efficient communication. For exact semantic interpretation of the proposed performatives, we also performed formal modelling of these performatives using BNF. The primary objective of our research was to provide the negotiation facility to agents, working in an e-commerce domain, in a succinct way to reduce the number of negotiation messages, time consumption and network overhead on the platform. We used an e-commerce based bidding case study among agents to demonstrate the efficiency of our approach. The results showed that there was a lot of reduction in total time required for the bidding process.

An Effort-Based Reward Approach for Allocating Load Shedding Amount in Networked Microgrids Using Multiagent System

An effort-based reward approach is proposed in this article for the allocation of load shedding amount in interconnected microgrids. In this article, effort is defined as the relative contribution of a microgrid to the network with respect to its capacity. In contrast to the absolute contribution-based reward methods, where smaller microgrids are discriminated, the proposed effort-based reward method provides a fair chance for microgrids of all sizes. Historic data of efforts of each microgrid are recorded and an index (effort index) is formulated. The effort index is used as a measure to allocate load shedding to microgrids during emergencies, where microgrids with higher effort indices receive lesser load shedding and vice versa. Different weights are defined for efforts of microgrids depending on the operation mode of the network due to the difference in the importance of power sharing in each mode. In addition, a reward compensation algorithm is devised to mitigate gaining of benefits for longer times while making lesser contributions. The proposed method is realized by using a multiagent system in java agent development framework (JADE) via agent communication language messages. The performance of the proposed method is compared with existing load shedding allocation algorithms, i.e., proportional method, bankruptcy Talmud rule, and absolute contribution-based reward methods.

Implementation of Software Agents and Advanced AoA for Disease Data Analysis.

To eliminate the possibilities of getting various contradicting solutions to a single problem during diagnosis, a single regular Agent oriented Approach (AoA) is replaced by Intelligent Artificial Agents that act like human and even dynamically decide in any situations known as Intelligent Searching Approach (ISA) is proposed. These agents are used to analyse the medical forums and results or findings are derived accurately than any manual approach. Multiple Agents have been used to analyse the blogs by dividing the work areas and communicating themselves using Agent Communication Language (ACL) and FIPA. The local solutions thus formed are forwarded to a global agent. This Global Agent controls all operations and makes the decision about the best solution. As the Global Agent controls all other agents, it eradicates unwanted and ineffective communication between the various local agents and hence keeping the time taken for communication at the minimum level. Based on these solutions a prioritization matrix is formed using advanced clustering techniques to create a prioritized content of suggested best solutions. Once the decision is made, the refining process runs several times recursively checking for all possible better solutions solving the input. On completion of this process, the Global Agent returns the exact result of the discussion. This process saves time rather than researching the entire blog for result data. This advanced approach lights a different way of obtaining solution keeping the time taken for discussion and intercommunication between the agents to the minimal level but not compromising on the perfection of the solution at the same time.

Timed-Arc Petri-Nets based Agent Communication for Real-Time Multi-Agent Systems

This research focuses on Timed-Arc Petri-nets-based agent communication in real-time multi-agent systems. The Agent Communication Language is a standard language for the agents to communicate. The objective is to combine Timed-Arc Petri-nets and FIPA Performatives in real-time multi-agent systems. FIPA standards provide a richer framework for the interaction of agents and makes it easier to develop a well-defined system. It also ensures the management by precisely specifying the agent’s interaction. Though FIPA protocol has already been described with the help of Petri-nets but this specification lacks the timing aspect that is a dire need for real-time multi-agent systems. The main objective of this research is to provide a method of modeling existing FIPA performatives by combining Timed-Arc Petri-nets in real-time multi-agent systems. We have used properties, such as liveness, deadlock and reachability for the formal verification of the proposed modeling technique.

Development and Application of a Real-Time Testbed for Multiagent System Interoperability: A Case Study on Hierarchical Microgrid Control

This paper presents the development and application of a real-time testbed for multiagent system interoperability. As utility independent private microgrids are installed constantly, standardized interoperability frameworks are required to define behavioral models of the individual agents for expandability and plug-and-play operation. In this paper, we propose a comprehensive hybrid agent framework combining the foundation for intelligent physical agents (FIPAs), IEC 61850, and data distribution service (DDS) standards. The IEC 61850 logical node concept is extended using FIPA-based agent communication language with application specific attributes and deliberative behavior modeling capability. The DDS middleware is adopted to enable a real-time publisher-subscriber interoperability mechanism between platforms. The proposed multi-agent framework was validated in a laboratory-based testbed involving developed intelligent electronic device prototypes and actual microgrid setups. Experimental results were demonstrated for both decentralized and distributed control approaches. Secondary and tertiary control levels of a microgrid were demonstrated for decentralized hierarchical control case study. A consensus-based economic dispatch case study was demonstrated as a distributed control example. It was shown that the developed agent platform is industrially applicable for actual smart grid field deployment.

A hybrid real-time agent platform for fault-tolerant, embedded applications

This paper describes an agent platform based on the Foundation for Intelligent Physical Systems Architecture, which, together with a highly fault tolerant, bio-inspired hardware architecture, aims to increase the reliability of future, low-cost satellites. To achieve the stringent operational requirements imposed by the real-time and resource-constrained environment of a satellite, the Hybrid Agent Real-Time Platform (HARP) distinguishes itself from other platforms in three areas. Firstly, the HARP middleware uses discrete processors, instead of virtual machines or interpreters, as its agent execution environment. This has the advantage of reducing the agency memory footprint and enabling agents to perform real-time tasks. Secondly, the HARP communication stack makes use of ISO-TP over CAN 2.0A as its transfer level protocol, cutting out resource-intensive layers such as HTTP and IIOP. In addition, the communication stack allows real-time CAN traffic to share the network and be given priority over Agent Communication Language messages. Finally, the HARP middleware embeds a peer-to-peer task manager in each agency, allowing systems which are built using the bio-inspired Artificial Stem Cell Architecture and HARP middleware to autonomously reconfigure in the event of failures. The detailed design of the HARP middleware is given, together with details of an implementation of the HARP middleware on a set of prototype satellite hardware. The performance and scaling potential of the middleware, determined through a set of physical experiments, provide evidence of the practical feasibility of the proposed architecture.

Optimal Operation of Microgrids Considering Auto-Configuration Function Using Multiagent System

Monitoring the status of existing devices and identification of newly added devices is required in microgrids to adjust the operation schedule followed by any event or integration of a new device. Therefore, in this paper, automatic reconfiguration of microgrids is considered after the addition of a new device or change in the operation status of an existing device by using a multiagent system. This capability of the microgrid is named as auto-configuration function, which is performed by the auto-configurator agent. In case of addition of a new device, the auto-configurator agent is responsible for authorization and registration of the newly added device. In case of change in status of any existing device, the status information is updated. After integration of a new device or change in status of an existing device, re-optimization is carried out by the energy management system (EMS) agent. Agent communication language (ACL) is used to develop a modified contract net protocol (MCNP) for communication among different agents. EMS agent and auto-configurator agent exchange information for economic rescheduling of the microgrid components. Simulation results have shown that the proposed method can be used for optimal operation of microgrids when the configuration changes due to the addition/removal of a device.

A hybrid and scalable multi-agent approach for patient scheduling based on Petri net models

Scheduling patients in a hospital is a challenging issue due to distributed organizational structure, dynamic medical workflows, variability of resources and the computational complexity involved. It calls for a sustainable architecture and a flexible scheduling scheme that can dynamically allocate available resources to promptly react to patients in a hospital and deliver healthcare services timely. The objectives of this paper are to propose a viable and systematic approach to develop a scalable and sustainable scheduling system based on multi-agent system (MAS) to shorten patient stay in a hospital and plan schedules based on the medical workflows and available resources. To develop a patient scheduling system, we combine MAS architecture, contract net protocol (CNP), workflow specification models based on Petri nets and the cooperative distributed problem solving concept. To achieve interoperability and sustainability, Petri Net Markup Language (PNML) and XML are used to specify precedence constraints of operations in medical workflows and capabilities of resource agents, respectively. Agent communication language (ACL) and CNP are used to achieve communication and negotiation/mutual selection of agents. A collaborative algorithm is invoked by individual agents to optimize the schedules locally based on a problem formulation automatically obtained by Petri net models. We have developed a scheduling system based on a FIPA compliant MAS platform to solve the dynamic patient scheduling problem. To illustrate the benefit of our approach, we compare the performance of our method with a heuristic rule commonly used in practice. In addition, we also analyze and verify scalability of our approach by experiments.

An Argumentation-Based Negotiation Approach in Electronic Marketplace based on Semantic Web

The argumentation-based negotiation is studied in several research works, the majority of them propose general models. The modeling of argumentation-based negotiation mechanism for a domain, such as e-commerce takes into account its specificity with regard to the nature of exchanged information. This study aimed to propose a new approach of argumentation-based negotiation in e-commerce which synthesize and improve the general approaches of argumentation. The model of argument is studied, for the use of its elements and structure. The force field analysis technique is improved to represent the various forces which conduct decisions taken during a dialog of negotiation. Semantic Web technologies are employed for the representation of the arguments, forces conducting agents' decisions, as well as the protocol of negotiation. Semantic web technologies are also employed in the representation of all knowledge which relates to marketplace and its elements (products, buyer and sellers). This study is supported by an agent based modeling of an electronic marketplace, in which a set of agents is developed and a set of ontology is created. Laptops are taken as a case of study of sold products. In addition, an argument interchange mechanism is implemented to transfer the arguments represented by OWL-DL sub-language into the content of FIPA-ACL messages. This modeling forms part to a work of development for the validation of the proposed approach.

언표내적 효과 기반의 FIPA-ACL 의미론 연구

One of the most important aspects of the research on multi-agent systems is the definition of agent communication languages(ACLs) and the specification of a proper formal semantics of ACLs. In this paper, we propose an illocutionary effect-based FIPA-ACL semantics which overcomes the two traditional semantic approaches. The key idea of this new semantics is based on the semantic concepts of success and satisfaction conditions of illocutionary acts in speech act theory, and the common ground theory-based framework. As case studies using this new semantics, we define the primitive speech acts of FIPA-ACL such as inform and request. For the strengths of the proposed approach we illustrate our new semantics on an e-commerce agent purchase negotiation. Also, we compare this approach with two traditional semantic approaches for ACLs.

Semantic web technology for agent interoperability: a proposed infrastructure

In recent studies, ontology related concepts have been introduced into FIPA ACL content language to convey information for agent communication. However, these works have only applied ontology-based knowledge representation in communication message and then demonstrated the advantage of this association. In fact, although ontology can represent semantic implications needed for decidable reasoning support, it has no mechanism for defining complex rule-based representation to support inference. The motivation of this study is to address this issue by developing a semantic-based infrastructure to integrate Semantic Web technologies into ACL message contents. This semantic-based infrastructure defines two different semantic frameworks: the three-tier knowledge representation framework for message content and the Multi-layer Ontology Architecture for content language. The former is developed based on Semantic Web stack to support ontology-based reasoning and rule-based inference. The latter is adopted to develop a Lightweight Ontology-based Content Language (LOCL) to describe agent communication messages in an unambiguous and computer-interpretable way Jena reasoner is used in an application scenario that exploits agent communication with LOCL as content language, OWL as ontology language, and SWRL as rule language to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed infrastructure.

An agent-based approach for organizational structures and interaction protocols mining in workflow

This paper deals with organizational perspective mining in workflow. First, it exposes a comparative study of three representative workflow mining systems: InWolve, WorkflowMiner and ProM. To perform our comparative study, we propose the following quality criteria: the capacity to filter and to convert an events log, the capacity to discover workflow perspectives and the capacity to support their analysis. The main limit of these systems is their inability to deal with organizational perspective mining issue. By organizational perspective, we mean, the social structures defining the activity distribution among actors involved in the workflow (namely federation, coalition, market or hierarchy), as well as the interaction protocols ruling the communications between them (such as contract net, auction or vote). To compensate the previous drawback, the paper proposes an agent-oriented approach to support the organizational perspective mining. More precisely, it proposes an events log model, which extends existing models by taking into account the interactions among actors, thanks to the performative-based agent communication language FIPA-ACL. It also presents a concrete case study to better illustrate the organizational perspective mining and some algorithms for organizational structures and interaction protocols mining. Finally, we describe in detail our discopflow tool to validate our solution.

A parallel computational model based on mobile agents for high performance computing

Abstract The goal of this paper is to present a new massively parallel virtual machine model, designed for parallel and high performance computing on distributed systems. The proposed model allows us to build a polymorphic grid computing assigned to solve fine grained parallel problems over different well known, SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data), SPMD (Single Program Multiple Data), MIMD (Multiple Instruction Multiple Data) ) and MPMD (Multiple Program Multiple Data) machine structures. This model is built using dynamic distributed Virtual Processors Units (VPU). Each VPU corresponds to a mobile agent deployed in a physical processing unit. Each physical processing unit is assigned to a node of the considered distributed system. These units may be heterogeneous machines, they are characterized by their physical performance indices. The proposed model is able to include different computing unit technologies, such as supercomputers, simple desktop or smart phones etc. The VPUs are designed to communicate with each other asynchronously by exchanging, in local or remote manner, the ACL messages (Agent Communication Language) containing data, instructions or any task to be performed. In this model a special agent is designed to represent the host of the parallel virtual machine and to manage the following activities: the life cycle of the VPUs, the load balancing control and the parallel programs to run. In this model VPUs can also use a virtual shared memory represented by hierarchical mobile agents. All the properties offered to the proposed model, are easily designed thanks to the flexibility and the mobility of the multi agent systems. This leads to a strong computation model for high perform-

Design of A Multi-agent System for Aero Engine Health Management

For the four processes of aero engine health management, which are composed of condition monitoring, diag- nostics, prognostics and prescriptive action, a four-layer architecture of aero engine health management divided into data layer, transaction layer, decision layer and users layer, is designed based on multi-agent. Corresponding to the function of each layer, six agent roles are defined, such as condition monitoring, information fusion, fault diagnosis, task consultation, rules management and human-computer interaction. FIPA ACL (Agent Communication Language)is the foundation for multi-agent interaction. The various steps involved in developing a multi-agent system using JADE (Java Agent Devel- opment Framework) are discussed. This paper provides theoretical conception for intelligent monitoring and intelligent fault diagnosis of aero engine, and for further research of multi-agent collaboration on multi-agent system.

Hybrid Multi-Agent Control in Microgrids: Framework, Models and Implementations Based on IEC 61850

Operation control is a vital and complex issue for microgrids. The objective of this paper is to explore the practical means of applying decentralized control by using a multi agent system in actual microgrids and devices. This paper presents a hierarchical control framework (HCF) consisting of local reaction control (LRC) level, local decision control (LDC) level, horizontal cooperation control (HCC) level and vertical cooperation control (VCC) level to meet different control requirements of a microgrid. Then, a hybrid multi-agent control model (HAM) is proposed to implement HCF, and the properties, functionalities and operating rules of HAM are described. Furthermore, the paper elaborates on the implementation of HAM based on the IEC 61850 Standard, and proposes some new implementation methods, such as extended information models of IEC 61850 with agent communication language and bidirectional interaction mechanism of generic object oriented substation event (GOOSE) communication. A hardware design and software system are proposed and the results of simulation and laboratory tests verify the effectiveness of the proposed strategies, models and implementations.