Article: Modelling intelligent agents for autonomic computing in the PNagent framework Journal: International Journal of Autonomic Computing (IJAC) 2009 Vol.1 No.2 pp.121 - 139 Abstract: Petri nets have proven to be a valuable tool for modelling concurrent systems. As such, they should be suitable for modelling agent and multi-agent systems, as these are inherently concurrent. Nevertheless, there are not many systems that allow the modelling of the whole multi-agent system in Petri nets. The use of Petri nets is usually limited to subproblems such as the verification of interaction protocols. This paper describes the main concepts of PNagent – a tool for modelling Believe-Desire-Intention (BDI) agents using the formalism of Object-Oriented Petri Nets (OOPN). PNagent allows for developing, testing and running software agents in a consistent graphical environment. The framework is suitable for prototyping and experiments with both multi-agent applications and the particular agent architecture itself. At the same time, thanks to the formal nature of its underlying paradigm, it provides the means to verify an agent|s properties. Thanks to its consistent environment and the high-level nature of the used formalism, the framework is also suitable for incorporating the ideas of autonomic computing. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Modelling intelligent agents for autonomic computing in the PNagent framework

Authors: Zdenek Mazal, Radek Koci, Vladimir Janousek, Frantisek Zboril Jr.

Addresses: Faculty of Information Technology, Brno University of Technology, Bozetechova 2, Brno 61266, Czech Republic. ' Faculty of Information Technology, Brno University of Technology, Bozetechova 2, Brno 61266, Czech Republic. ' Faculty of Information Technology, Brno University of Technology, Bozetechova 2, Brno 61266, Czech Republic. ' Faculty of Information Technology, Brno University of Technology, Bozetechova 2, Brno 61266, Czech Republic

Abstract: Petri nets have proven to be a valuable tool for modelling concurrent systems. As such, they should be suitable for modelling agent and multi-agent systems, as these are inherently concurrent. Nevertheless, there are not many systems that allow the modelling of the whole multi-agent system in Petri nets. The use of Petri nets is usually limited to subproblems such as the verification of interaction protocols. This paper describes the main concepts of PNagent – a tool for modelling Believe-Desire-Intention (BDI) agents using the formalism of Object-Oriented Petri Nets (OOPN). PNagent allows for developing, testing and running software agents in a consistent graphical environment. The framework is suitable for prototyping and experiments with both multi-agent applications and the particular agent architecture itself. At the same time, thanks to the formal nature of its underlying paradigm, it provides the means to verify an agent|s properties. Thanks to its consistent environment and the high-level nature of the used formalism, the framework is also suitable for incorporating the ideas of autonomic computing.

Keywords: agent modelling; deliberative agents; BDI architecture; object-oriented Petri nets; OOPN; Pnagent; concurrent systems; autonomic computing; intelligent agents; multi-agent systems; MAS; agent-based systems.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAC.2009.024745

International Journal of Autonomic Computing, 2009 Vol.1 No.2, pp.121 - 139

Published online: 30 Apr 2009 *

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Title: Modelling intelligent agents for autonomic computing in the PNagent framework

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