Communicating open systems

Mark d'Inverno; Michael Luck; Pablo Noriega; Juan Rodriguez-Aguilar; Carles Sierra

doi:10.1016/j.artint.2012.03.004

Communicating open systems

Mark d'Inverno, Michael Luck, Pablo Noriega, Juan Rodriguez-Aguilar, Carles Sierra

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

63 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Just as conventional institutions are organisational structures for coordinating the activities of multiple interacting individuals, electronic institutions provide a computational analogue for coordinating the activities of multiple interacting software agents. In this paper, we argue that open multi-agent systems can be effectively designed and implemented as electronic institutions, for which we provide a comprehensive computational model. More specifically, the paper provides an operational semantics for electronic institutions, specifying the essential data structures, the state representation and the key operations necessary to implement them. We specify the agent workflow structure that is the core component of such electronic institutions and particular instantiations of knowledge representation languages that support the institutional model. In so doing, we provide the first formal account of the electronic institution concept in a rigorous and unambiguous way.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	38-94
Number of pages	57
Journal	ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Volume	186
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artint.2012.03.004
Publication status	Published - Jul 2012

Keywords

Agent communication
Formal languages
Electronic institutions

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10.1016/j.artint.2012.03.004

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title = "Communicating open systems",

abstract = "Just as conventional institutions are organisational structures for coordinating the activities of multiple interacting individuals, electronic institutions provide a computational analogue for coordinating the activities of multiple interacting software agents. In this paper, we argue that open multi-agent systems can be effectively designed and implemented as electronic institutions, for which we provide a comprehensive computational model. More specifically, the paper provides an operational semantics for electronic institutions, specifying the essential data structures, the state representation and the key operations necessary to implement them. We specify the agent workflow structure that is the core component of such electronic institutions and particular instantiations of knowledge representation languages that support the institutional model. In so doing, we provide the first formal account of the electronic institution concept in a rigorous and unambiguous way.",

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author = "Mark d'Inverno and Michael Luck and Pablo Noriega and Juan Rodriguez-Aguilar and Carles Sierra",

year = "2012",

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doi = "10.1016/j.artint.2012.03.004",

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AU - d'Inverno, Mark

AU - Luck, Michael

AU - Noriega, Pablo

AU - Rodriguez-Aguilar, Juan

AU - Sierra, Carles

PY - 2012/7

Y1 - 2012/7

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AB - Just as conventional institutions are organisational structures for coordinating the activities of multiple interacting individuals, electronic institutions provide a computational analogue for coordinating the activities of multiple interacting software agents. In this paper, we argue that open multi-agent systems can be effectively designed and implemented as electronic institutions, for which we provide a comprehensive computational model. More specifically, the paper provides an operational semantics for electronic institutions, specifying the essential data structures, the state representation and the key operations necessary to implement them. We specify the agent workflow structure that is the core component of such electronic institutions and particular instantiations of knowledge representation languages that support the institutional model. In so doing, we provide the first formal account of the electronic institution concept in a rigorous and unambiguous way.

KW - Agent communication

KW - Formal languages

KW - Electronic institutions

U2 - 10.1016/j.artint.2012.03.004

DO - 10.1016/j.artint.2012.03.004

M3 - Article

SN - 0004-3702

VL - 186

SP - 38

EP - 94

JO - ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

JF - ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

ER -

Communicating open systems

Abstract

Keywords

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