Federico Capuzzimati

Typing Multi-Agent Systems via Commitments

This work presents an agent typing system, that differently than most of other proposals relies on notions that are typical of agent systems instead of relying on a functional approach. Specifically, we use commitments to define types. The proposed typing includes a notion of compatibility, based on subtyping, which allows for the safe substitution of agents to roles along an interaction that is ruled by a commitment-based protocol. Type checking can be done dynamically when an agent enacts a role. The proposal is implemented in the 2COMM framework and exploits Java annotations. 2COMM is based on the Agent & Artifact meta-model, exploit JADE and CArtAgO, by using CArtAgO artifacts in order to reify commitment protocols.

Engineering commitment-based business protocols with the 2CL methodology

Enterprises must respect a number of regulations, with multilevel nature and which change along time. They must not only adapt their business interactions to the regulations and their changes but also evaluate the risks of violation of the new rules and to account for responsibilities. This work proposes a methodological framework for modeling and engineering business protocols, which gives primary position to the notions of commitment and responsibility, and supports the analysis of risks of violation when a new regulation is issued. We build on 2CL commitment-based protocols and introduce 2CL Methodology, a software engineering methodology for such protocols, which includes guidelines for specifying 2CL business protocols, for specialising them, and for composing a new 2CL protocol based on a set of given 2CL protocols. We developed a set of integrated software tools for the design and the analysis of 2CL protocols, with the aim of concretely supporting, on the one hand, designers in the task of identifying exposure to risks of violation, and, on the other hand, the management in the task of reasoning about accountability and of decision making. The proposal is evaluated by using a real-world case study from the banking sector.

Exploiting Social Commitments in Programming Agent Interaction

Modeling and regulating interactions among agents is a critical step in the development of Multiagent Systems (MASs). Some recent works assume a normative view, and suggest to model interaction protocols in terms of obligations. In this paper we propose to model interaction protocols in terms of goals and commitments, and show how such a formalization promotes a deliberative process inside the agents. The proposal is implemented via JaCaMo+, an extension of JaCaMo, in which Jason agents can interact, while preserving their deliberative capabilities, by exploiting commitment-based protocols, reified by special CArtAgO artifacts.

Empowering Agent Coordination with Social Engagement

Agent coordination based on Activity Theory postulates that agents control their own behavior from the outside by using and creating artifacts through which they interact. Based on this conception, we envisage social engagements as first-class resources that agents exploit in their deliberative cycle (as well as beliefs, goals, intentions), and propose to realize them as artifacts that agents create and manipulate along the interaction, and that drive the interaction itself. Consequently, agents will base their reasoning on their social engagement, instead of relying on event occurrence alone. Placing social engagement at the center of coordination promotes agent decoupling and also the decoupling of the agent specifications from the specification of their coordination. The paper also discusses JaCaMo+, a framework that implements this proposal.

A Generalized Commitment Machine for 2CL Protocols and Its Implementation

This work proposes an operational semantics for the commitment protocol language 2CL. This semantics relies on an extension of Singh’s Generalized Commitment Machine, that we named 2CL-Generalized Commitment Machines. The 2CL-Generalized Commitment Machine was implemented in Prolog by extending Winikoff, Liu and Harland’s implementation. The implementation is equipped with a graphical tool that allows the analyst to explore all the possible executions, showing both commitment and constraint violations, and thus helping the analyst as well as the protocol designer to identify the risks the interaction could encounter. The implementation is part of an Eclipse plug-in which supports 2CL-protocol design and analysis.

Social computing in JaCaMo

Social Computing (SC) requires agents to reason seamlessly both on their social relationships and on their goals, beliefs. We claim the need to explicitly represent the social state and social relationships as resources, available to agents. We built a framework, based on JaCaMo, where this vision is realized and SC is implemented through social commitments and commitment protocols.

Type checking for protocol role enactments via commitments

This work presents a commitment-based agent typing system. Type checking is done dynamically when an agent enacts a commitment-based protocol role: verification checks if the agent meets the requirements displayed by the role it means to enact. An example implementation in the 2COMM4JADE framework is provided. 2COMM4JADE is based on the Agent and Artifact meta-model and exploits JADE and CArtAgO, by using CArtAgO artifacts in order to reify commitment protocols.

Objective Coordination with Business Artifacts and Social Engagements

This work studies business artifacts by tackling a limit that we see in the current model, which is: business artifacts are not devised as natural means of coordination in their own right, despite the fact that they have the potential of being natural means of coordination in their own right. Coordination issues are transfered (e.g. by BALSA) to solutions that are already available in the literature on choreography and choreography languages. Instead, we propose to enrich business artifacts with a normative layer that accounts for the social engagements of the parties which interact by using a same business artifact. We explain the advantages, also from a software engineering perspective, and propose an approach that relies on the notion of social commitment.

Business Process Management for Legal Domains: supporting execution and management of Preliminary Injunctions

Business Process Management Systems (BPMS) are widely recognized as fundamental component of the IT infrastructure supporting middle-large organi- zation, thanks to their capacity of providing easy-to-read models of how the organi- zation works, and to the capability of enacting these business processes, supporting and monitoring their execution. In this work we present results collected during a feasibility study, that aims to apply BPM concepts to a legal domain: decision and enforcement of preliminary injunctions.

Programming JADE and ajason agents based on social relationships using a uniform approach

Interaction is an essential feature in multiagent systems. Design primitives are needed to explicitly model desired patterns. This work presents 2COMM as a framework for defining social relations among parties, represented by social commitments. Starting from the definition of interaction protocols, 2COMM allows to decouple interaction design from agent design. Currently, adapters were developed for allowing the use of 2COMM with the JADE and the JaCaMo platforms. We show how agents for the two platforms can be implemented by relying on a common programming schema.