http://www.ececs.uc.edu/~abaker/JAFMAS
The framework is intended to help beginning and expert agent developers
structure their ideas into concrete agent applications. It directs
development from a speech-act perspective. It supports multicast and
directed communication, KQML or other speech-act performatives and analysis
of system coherency and consistency.
The JAFMAS methodology follows five stages: (i) agent identification, (ii)
definition of each agent's conversations, (iii) determining the rules
governing each agent's conversations, (iv) analyzing the coherency between
all the conversations in the system, and (v) implementation.
Implementation is supported by 16 Java classes including those for
communication, linguistic interaction and coordination. Only 4 of the
provided classes must be extended for any application.
Communication support is provided for both directed communication and
subject-based broadcast communication.
Linguistic support is provided for speech-act (e.g. KQML) based
communications and allows use of an agent independent semantics.
Coordination support follows from Searle's thesis (Speech Acts, Cambridge
University Press, 1962) that, "speaking a language is engaging in a [highly
complex] rule-governed form of behavior." Thus agent plans and their
coordination are conceptualized as rule-based conversations represented by
automata models.
JAFMAS classes support each agent with multiple threads, one for the agent,
one for each conversation in which the agent engages, and one for each
subject to which the agent subscribes.
A five step process is presented for implementing a multiagent system.
Here JAFMAS classes are extended for each agent, for each conversation, for
each conversation rule, and for an operator interface to develop
application specific classes. Then a start-up procedure is deployed.
Example applications are provided of the n-Queens problem and supply chain
integration. Petri Net based analysis tools are used to determine
conversation coherency.
System Requirements: Sun's Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.1, any operating
system supporting the JDK 1.1 (Window95, Windows NT v3.51, v4.0, Solaris
v2.3, v2.4, v2.5).
For further information or to download a FREE COPY of the JAFMAS class
library (V0.1) visit
http://www.ececs.uc.edu/~abaker/JAFMAS
Contacts:
Deepika Chauhan (dchauhan@ececs.uc.edu) or Bert Baker (bert.baker@uc.edu)
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science
834A Rhodes Hall - ML 30, University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0030, USA
Ph. (513)556-4782
____________________________________________________________________
Albert D. Baker, Director
Agent-Based Manufacturing Laboratory
Elec & Comp Eng and Comp Sci Dept e-mail:Bert.Baker@UC.EDU
834A Rhodes Hall - ML 30 http://www.ececs.uc.edu/~abaker
University of Cincinnati voice:(513) 556-4782
Cincinnati, OH 45221-0030 fax:(513) 556-7326
____________________________________________________________________
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