The Agent Factory Framework @ October 2007

This material is based upon work supported by Science Foundation Ireland under Grant No. 03/IN3/1361

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN DUBLIN CITY UNIVERSITY

The Agent Factory Framework@

October 2007



Agent Research @ PRISM

• PRISM: Practice and Research in Intelligent Systems and Media– Director: Gregory O’Hare– Currently 29 Research Staff

• 2 Academic Staff• 3 Post Doctoral Researchers• 1 Visiting Researcher• 23 Post Graduates

– 35+ Publications per year

• 2 Main Research Themes– Agent-Oriented Software Engineering

• Practical agent architectures and programming languages• Tool and methodology support• Application Infrastructures and Architectural Patterns

– Application Development• Focus on complex distributed systems.• Applied to real-world problem domains. • Used to implement large-scale demonstrator applications.



Agent Factory

• Framework for developing and deploying multi-agent systemsInitial specification 1995Smalltalk based implementation 1996-2000Java Agent Factory “Lite” for mobile devices released 2000Transition to full Java implementation 2001

• Key Features– Adopts “Plug and Play” philosophy

– Supports multiple Agent Architectures and Languages

– Broadly compliant with FIPA standards

– Run-time is deployable on J2SE and J2ME CDLC devices

• Available as Open Source under LGPL



Agent Factory On-line

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http://www.agentfactory.com



Platform Configuration

NEXUSAgents

HOTAIRAgents

ACCESSAgents

Agent Factory Framework

AF Deployment Process

SystemSpecification

PlatformConfiguration

CommunityInitialization

BBADevelopment Kit

ALPHADevelopment Kit

AFAPLDevelopment Kit…

Agent Factory Run-Time Environment

Agent System Architecture

FIPA-compliant Agent Platform


Secure Mobile Agent Architecture

Federated FIPA-compliantWP & YP Services


…Interpreter Manager

AFAPLInterpreter

ALPHAInterpreter

BBAArchitecture…

Platform Services Manager

Agent ManagementService

HTTP MessageTransport Service

AFAPLTest Suite…

Security Module

Platform ServiceAccess Rights

Platform Configuration File

Agent PlatformScript

Run-time Tools

AFAPL DebuggerRemote Command

ServiceLightweight PlatformManagement Tool…

The Agent Factory Framework




NEXUSAgents

HOTAIRAgents

ACCESSAgents



SystemSpecification



BBADevelopment Kit











AFAPLInterpreter

ALPHAInterpreter

BBAArchitecture…




AFAPLTest Suite…

Security Module




Run-time Tools




• Deployment Process– Defines how to deploy a multi-agent system– Starts with an informal specification– Identifies platform configurations & the distribution of the initial agent community




NEXUSAgents

HOTAIRAgents

ACCESSAgents



SystemSpecification



BBADevelopment Kit











AFAPLInterpreter

ALPHAInterpreter

BBAArchitecture…




AFAPLTest Suite…

Security Module




Run-time Tools




• Development Kits– Provide support for developing specific types of

agent– Minimum requirement is a agent architecture / interpreter– The most mature is the AFAPL Development Kit



AFAPL

• AFAPL: Agent Factory Agent Programming Language– High-level language for specifying agent behaviours based on multi-modal

logic of commitment• Beliefs: The current state of the world• Plans: Possible courses of action that the agent may follow• Commitments: The courses of action that the agent has decided to follow• Commitment Rules: Situations in which new commitments should be adopted

– Combined with a set of Java-based agent components• Perceptors: generate beliefs about the current state of the environment• Actuators: implement the primitive actions of the agent• Modules: Private internal resources that the agent can use to store data

– Plus support for reuse through a C-style #include mechanism



AFAPL Development Methodology

AFAPL Development Environment




Eclipse Plugin Netbeans Module VIPER Toolkit

Agent Component & Program Library

AFAPL Compiler AFAPL Debugger

AFAPL Interpreter

System BehavourModel

Protocol Model Activity Model

AFAPL Test Suite

Belief Manager Module ManagerCommitment

Manager

Plan Library Action Library



Interpreter Manager

AFAPLInterpreter

ALPHAInterpreter

BBAArchitecture…




AFAPLTest Suite…

Security Module




Run-time Tools



Agent Factory & AFAPL-DK

• Interpreter– Loads & executes AFAPL programs

– Instantiates agent components

– Algorithm designed to handle failure of components











AFAPL Interpreter



AFAPL Test Suite


Manager




Interpreter Manager

AFAPLInterpreter

ALPHAInterpreter

BBAArchitecture…




AFAPLTest Suite…

Security Module




Run-time Tools




• Development Environment– Compiler checks syntax and semantics



AFAPL-DK: AFAPL CompilerAFAPL Development Methodology










AFAPL Test Suite

AFAPL Interpreter


Manager












AFAPL Interpreter



AFAPL Test Suite


Manager




Interpreter Manager

AFAPLInterpreter

ALPHAInterpreter

BBAArchitecture…




AFAPLTest Suite…

Security Module




Run-time Tools





– Integration with established IDEs



AFAPL-DK: Netbeans ModuleAFAPL Development Methodology










AFAPL Test Suite

AFAPL Interpreter


Manager












AFAPL Interpreter



AFAPL Test Suite


Manager




Interpreter Manager

AFAPLInterpreter

ALPHAInterpreter

BBAArchitecture…




AFAPLTest Suite…

Security Module




Run-time Tools






– Extended toolset



AFAPL-DK: VIPER ToolkitAFAPL Development Methodology










AFAPL Test Suite

AFAPL Interpreter


Manager




AFAPL-DK: AFAPL DebuggerAFAPL Development Methodology










AFAPL Test Suite

AFAPL Interpreter


Manager












AFAPL Interpreter



AFAPL Test Suite


Manager




Interpreter Manager

AFAPLInterpreter

ALPHAInterpreter

BBAArchitecture…




AFAPLTest Suite…

Security Module




Run-time Tools






– Extended toolset

– Library of Prefabricated Elements



AF Development Methodology








AFAPL Interpreter



AFAPL Test Suite


Manager




Interpreter Manager

AFAPLInterpreter

ALPHAInterpreter

BBAArchitecture…




AFAPLTest Suite…

Security Module




Run-time Tools




• AFDM– Flexible development process

– Promotes Test-Driven Development

– Models based on Agent UML



Current Application Domains

• Mobile Computing– Gulliver’s Genie, Ad-Me, WAY System, EasiShop, E=mc2

• Virtual and Mixed Reality Environments– ECHOES, NEXUS, Agent Chameleons

• Robotics– Social Robot Architecture, SAID, Agent Chameleons

• Distributed Sensor Networks– AIC, CLARITY

• Large-Scale Information Retrieval– HOTAIR, SIFT

The Agent Factory Framework @ October 2007

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