Papers by Jomi Fred Hubner
Springer eBooks, 2009
Reputation is often cited as an instrument to enforce norm compliance: agents that do not follow ... more Reputation is often cited as an instrument to enforce norm compliance: agents that do not follow the norms have their reputation decreased. Conceiving reputation as a collective process, i.e. a kind of shared voices as proposed by Conte & Paolucci, is not a simple task. In this paper, we propose a first step in this direction by instrumenting multi-agent organisation with an artifact that publishes some objective evaluations of the performance of the agents with respect to their behaviour within the organisation. The members of the organisation can then read these evaluations and build up their reputation of others. The artifact serves thus as an instrument that aid in the building of the reputation of the agents. We propose that the evaluation of the agents is not simply based on their obedience to norms, but also considers their proactiveness and their contribution to the success of collective tasks that are being executed in the organisation. This proposal is detailed and exemplified in the context of the Moise + organisational model supported by a set of organisational artifacts as proposed in the ora4mas approach.
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Dec 13, 2007
The social and organisational aspects of agency have have become nowadays a major focus of intere... more The social and organisational aspects of agency have have become nowadays a major focus of interest in the MAS community, and a good amount of theoretical work is available, in terms of formal models and theories. However, the conception and engineering of proper organisational infrastructures embodying such models and theories is still an open issue, in particular when open MAS are considered. Accordingly, in this paper we discuss a model for an organisational infrastructure called ORA4MAS that aims at addressing these issues. By being based on the A&A (Agents and Artifacts) meta-model, the key and novel aspect introduced with ORA4MAS is that organisations and the organisation infrastructure itself are conceived in terms of agents and artifacts, as first-class basic abstractions giving body to the MAS from design to runtime. This is in analogy with human organisation and organisation infrastructures, that are populated by humans (as participants and part of the organisation machinery), and by rich sets of artifacts and tools that humans use to support their activities inside the organisation and the organisation itself, encapsulating essential infrastructure services.
In this paper, we are considering agents that act to satisfy their interests in systems composed ... more In this paper, we are considering agents that act to satisfy their interests in systems composed of institutions. These institutions are unknown to the agents at design time and are endowed with actions (called institutional actions) with functions that bring consequences in the environment that match the interests of the agents. However, existing models of artificial institutions do not make these consequences explicit. Agents need to know the institutions and the consequences of carrying out institutional actions before acting in the systems. Considering this problem, this paper proposes to instrument institutions with a purpose model that makes the environmental consequences of carrying out institutional actions explicit. In addition, the paper also presents some algorithms that agents can use to consider this information in their reasoning and deliberation process. The model is presented, discussed and implemented using the JaCaMo framework, highlighting its advantages for agent...
Revista de Informática Teórica e Aplicada
In multi-agent systems, artificial institutions connect institutional concepts, belonging to the ... more In multi-agent systems, artificial institutions connect institutional concepts, belonging to the institutional reality, to the concrete elements that compose the system. The institutional reality is composed of a set of institutional concepts, called Status-Functions. Current works on artificial institutions focus on identifying the status-functions and connecting them to the concrete elements. However, the functions associated with the status-functions are implicit. As a consequence, the agents cannot reason about the functions provided by the elements that carry the status-functions and, thus, cannot exploit these functions to satisfy their goals. Considering this problem, this paper proposes a model to express the functions -or the purposes -associated with the status-functions. Examples illustrate the application of the model in a practical scenario, showing how the agents can use purposes to reason about the satisfaction of their goals in institutional contexts.
The Multi-Agent Oriented Programming (MAOP) paradigm provides abstractions to model and implement... more The Multi-Agent Oriented Programming (MAOP) paradigm provides abstractions to model and implements entities of agents, as well as of their organisations and environments.In recent years, researchers have started to explore the integration of MAOP and the resource-oriented web architecture (REST).This paper further advances this line of research by presenting an ongoing work on jacamo-rest, a resource-oriented web-based abstraction for the multi-agent programming platform JaCaMo.Jacamo-rest takes Multi-Agent System (MAS) interoperability to a new level, enabling MAS to not only interact with services or applications of the World Wide Web but also to be managed and updated in their specifications by other applications.To add a developer interface to JaCaMo that is suitable for the Web, we provide a novel conceptual perspective on the management of MAOP specification entities as web resources.We tested jacamo-rest using it as a middleware of a programming interface application that pro...
Engineering Multi-Agent Systems, 2022
In this paper, we propose the integration of approaches to Engineering Multi-Agent Systems (EMAS)... more In this paper, we propose the integration of approaches to Engineering Multi-Agent Systems (EMAS) with the Developer Operations (DevOps) industry best practice. Whilst DevOps facilitates the organizational autonomy of software teams, as well as the technological automation of testing, deployment, and operations pipelines, EMAS and the agent-oriented programming paradigm help instill autonomy into software artifacts. We discuss the benefits of integrating DevOps and EMAS, for example by highlighting the need for agent-oriented abstractions for quality assurance and test automation approaches. More generally, we introduce an agent-oriented perspective on the DevOps life-cycle and list a range of research challenges that are relevant for the integration of the DevOps and EMAS perspectives.
In MAS programming and engineering, the environment and the organisation can be exploited as firs... more In MAS programming and engineering, the environment and the organisation can be exploited as first-class design and programming abstractions besides the agent one. A main example of a platform implementing this view is JaCaMo, which allows the programming of a MAS in terms of an organisation of cognitive agents sharing a common artifact-based environment. However, MAS models and platforms in general do not provide a satisfactory approach for MAS developers to uniformly deal with distribution at multiple dimensions -- agent, environment, and organisation. Typically, environments are either centralised in a single node, or composed by parts that run on different nodes but with a poor support at the programming and execution levels to deal with that. In this paper, we tackle this problem by proposing a model for engineering world-wide distributed environments and organisations for MAS. The approach integrates the A&A (Agents and Artifacts) conceptual model with a web/resource-oriented ...
Reactive behaviour in Belief Desire Intention (BDI)-based models and architectures adopted in age... more Reactive behaviour in Belief Desire Intention (BDI)-based models and architectures adopted in agent programming is typically specified in terms of reactive plans not bound to any specific goal. In this paper, we present and discuss an extension of the plan model used in BDI programming languages in which goal-based plans encapsulate both proactive and reactive behaviour. This brings important benefits both to the practice of agent programming and in supporting agent reasoning at runtime. The approach is evaluated through concrete implementations based on two existing agent programming platforms, namely Jason and ASTRA.
Engineering Multi-Agent Systems, 2020
This paper presents jacamo-web, an interactive programming IDE to develop Multi-Agent Systems. Th... more This paper presents jacamo-web, an interactive programming IDE to develop Multi-Agent Systems. The standard programming method usually follows the sequence of compile, link and execute the application. Alternatively, so-called interactive programming provides a way to modify a system while it is running. Besides saving developing time, it maintains the system's availability since the application is kept running while it is being changed. To illustrate jacamo-web interactive functions, we have developed a MAS for the financial market. It checks data of companies and applies known formulae to suggest whether to buy assets or not.
Exploiting Simulation for MAS Development and Execution—The JaCaMo-Sim Approach
Engineering Multi-Agent Systems, 2020
International audienceSimulation can be an important conceptual and practical tool to support the... more International audienceSimulation can be an important conceptual and practical tool to support the engineering of multi-agent systems (MAS), in different ways-testing in particular. In this paper we consider the case in which simulation is applied and exploited directly upon a MAS developed using an existing agent programming/-MAS programming platform. That is: without requiring to model and simulate agents and their environment using a different platform (e.g., an agent-based simulation one). In particular, we describe the design and prototype implementation of JaCaMo-sim, an extension of the JaCaMo platform that makes it possible to both run and simulate the execution of MAS programs based on BDI agents written in Jason, situated in artifact-based environments developed in CArtAgO. The tool can be useful for different aspects that concern MAS engineering, from MAS testing at development time to-in perspective-agent decision making support at runtime
Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 2017
In multi-agent systems, norms are a usual way to regulate the behaviour of autonomous agents. To ... more In multi-agent systems, norms are a usual way to regulate the behaviour of autonomous agents. To be stable in different circumstances, norms are specified using high level terms, abstracting from the particular dynamics of the environment where the agents are situated. However, applying these norms requires a proper link with a concrete environment. Detaching that link from the norms themselves provides stability to the normative regulation but raises consistency and flexibility issues. Consistency is achieved when the abstract norms are coherent with the environment under regulation. Flexibility is achieved when different kinds of norms share the same interpretation about the environmental state. These properties are provided in some current works. However, since they are interrelated, there is not, to our knowledge, a single proposal providing all of them. This paper proposes the situated artificial institution (SAI) model to address these three issues-stability, consistency, and flexibility-by conceiving norms as part of institutions that provide, through the process of constitution, a social interpretation of the environmental state. After the presentation of the formalised model of SAI, a case study is used to illustrate and test this approach. Institutions • Norms • Count-as • Situatedness B Maiquel de Brito
The Knowledge Engineering Review, 2019
Research on Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) has led to the development of several models, languages, an... more Research on Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) has led to the development of several models, languages, and technologies for programming not only agents, but also their interaction, the application environment where they are situated, as well as the organization in which they participate. Research on those topics moved from agent-oriented programming towards multi-agent-oriented programming (MAOP). A MAS program is then designed and developed using a structured set of concepts and associated first-class design and programming abstractions that go beyond the concepts normally associated with agents. They include those related to environment, interaction, and organization. JaCaMo is a platform for MAOP built on top of three seamlessly integrated dimensions (i.e. structured sets of concepts and associated execution platforms): for programming belief desire intention (BDI) agents, their artefact-based environments, and their normative organizations. The key purpose of our work on JaCaMo is to su...
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2010
Recent work shows a tendency to use programming languages specific to the social aspects of multi... more Recent work shows a tendency to use programming languages specific to the social aspects of multi-agent systems, for example in programming norms that agents ought to follow. In this paper, we introduce a simple and elegant normative programming language called NPL and show its operational semantics. We then define a particular class of NPL programs that are suitable for programming Organisation Management Infrastructures (OMI) for MOISE, defining a Normative Organisation Programming Language (NOPL). We show how MOISE's Organisation Modelling Language can be translated into NOPL, and briefly describe how this all has been implemented on top of an artifact-based OMI for MOISE.
Using Jason and $\mathcal{M}$ oise + to Develop a Team of Cowboys
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2009
ABSTRACT
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2013
Five teams participated in the Multi-Agent Programming Contest in 2013: All of them gained experi... more Five teams participated in the Multi-Agent Programming Contest in 2013: All of them gained experience in 2012 already. In order to better understand which paradigms they used, which techniques they considered important and how much work they invested, the organisers of the contest compiled together a detailed list of questions (circa 50). This paper collects all answers to these questions as given by the teams.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2013
In multi-agent systems with separate agents, environment, and institution dimensions, the institu... more In multi-agent systems with separate agents, environment, and institution dimensions, the institutional state can be affected by facts originating in any of those constituent dimensions. Most current approaches model the dynamics of the institution focusing on the agents and the institution itself as the main sources of facts that produce changes in the institutional state. In this paper, we investigate also the environment as an important source of facts that change the institution. We propose thus a model and a language to specify and program the institutional dynamics as consequence of events and state changes occurring in any of the three component dimensions of the system (agent, environment, and institution). Our approach was evaluated through a case study where we compare two solutions for an application: the original design and a new one based on our proposal. We observed a simplification of the agents' reasoning, an increase in the functions performed by the environment and the institution, and greater independence of the agents within the system. This last result is specially important in open systems where we cannot take for granted that agents will take part in the system.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2012
Agents act and perceive in shared environments where they are situated. Although there are many e... more Agents act and perceive in shared environments where they are situated. Although there are many environments for agents -ranging from testbeds to commercial applications -such environments have not been widely used because of the difficulty of interfacing agents with those environments. A more generic approach for connecting agents to environments would be beneficial for several reasons. It would facilitate reuse, comparison, the development of truly heterogeneous agent systems, and increase our understanding of the issues involved in the design of agent-environment interaction. To this end, we have designed and developed a generic environment interface standard. Our design has been guided by existing agent programming platforms. These platforms are not only suitable for developing agents but also already provide some support for connecting agents to environments. The interface standard itself is generic, however, and does not commit to any specific platform features. The interface proposal has been implemented and evaluated in a number of agent platforms. We aim at a de facto standard that might become an actual standard in the near future.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2014
Interaction is a subject widely investigated in multi-agent systems (MASs), but some issues are s... more Interaction is a subject widely investigated in multi-agent systems (MASs), but some issues are still open. While most of current approaches of interaction in MAS just consider the interaction between agents, some problems are better modeled when the MAS is composed of agents, environment, interaction, and organization. In our approach, we integrate the interaction with the other MAS components, like the organization and the environment, keeping it as a first class abstraction. In this paper we present a conceptual model for the interaction component, a programming language to specify the interaction, and how our approach was integrated in an MAS platform. The main result of this paper is the conception of the interaction as a first class abstraction considering an MAS composed of agents, environment, interaction, and organization.
Science of Computer Programming, 2013
JaCaMo Platform Java Platform CArtAgO, Jason, NOPL engine Operating System artifact(SB,SchemeBoar... more JaCaMo Platform Java Platform CArtAgO, Jason, NOPL engine Operating System artifact(SB,SchemeBoard,ID1) artifact(CONS,Console,ID2) ... Agents and Artifacts (A&A) Conceptual Model: Background Human Metaphor WHITEBOARD artifact ARCHIVE artifact COM. CHANNEL artifact TASK SCHEDULER artifact RESOURCE artifact CLOCK artifact BAKERY workspace agents can join dynamically the workspace NOPL (80%): dynamic of obligations (several aspects of the Moise OS have been translated to norms) CArtAgO (10%): interface for agents Java (10%): dynamic of organisational state
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Papers by Jomi Fred Hubner