José Ghislain Quenum

A modeling framework for generic agent interaction protocols

Agent-UML (AUML) extended UML in order to facilitate the modeling process for agent based systems. It offers several graphical notations, including protocol diagrams which represent agent interaction protocols. In this paper, we describe an AUML-based framework to specify generic protocols. We call generic protocols, agent interaction protocols where only a general behavior of the interacting entities can be described. From AUML protocol diagrams, we identified five fundamental concepts on top of which we defined formal specifications of generic protocols. Through our specifications, we addressed a lack in generic protocol representation by emphasizing the description of actions performed in the course of interactions based on such protocols. The framework we developed is formal, expressive and of practical use. It helps decouple interaction concerns from the rest of an agents architecture. As an application, we used this framework to publish the specifications of generic protocols for agent interactions in several multi-agent system applications we developed. Additionally, the framework helped us address two issues faced in the design of agent interactions based on generic protocols, protocol configuration and their dynamic selection.

Automatic Derivation of Agent Interaction Model from Generic Interaction Protocols

Interaction can take place in multi-agent systems (MAS), only if each agent contains features devoted to it. These features are usually difficult to implement and programmers have often to redesign them, even when they take inspiration from generic interaction protocols. Most often, interaction features are not separated from other, functional, ones and this places a limitation on the reusability potential of the agent’s interaction capabilities in different contexts. In such a situation inconsistencies are difficult to anticipate and solve.

Protocol Selection alongside Service Selection and Composition

This paper addresses the issue of coordination mechanism selection in agent based service oriented computing systems. We aim to strengthen the current research on service selection and composition with a dynamic choice of the underlying coordination mechanisms. Indeed, since the environment in such systems might dynamically change, and the agents can have several protocols at their disposal, they need to select the most adequate one for service provision/request upon the prevailing circumstances. In this paper, we present a joint protocol selection mechanism, which enables agents to decide together the protocols they will use to coordinate each other during a service provision.

A dynamic joint protocols selection method to perform collaborative tasks

The work achieved in multi-agent interactions design mostly relates to protocols definition, specification, etc. In this paper we tackle a new problem, the dynamic selection of interaction protocols. Generally the protocols and the roles agents play in protocol based interactions are imposed upon the system at design time. This static selection severely limits the openness, the dynamic behaviours agents are expected to exhibit, the integration of new protocols, etc. To address this issue, we developed a method which enables agents to select protocols themselves at runtime when they need to interact with one another. We define the concepts and the mechanisms which enable agents to perform this dynamic selection.