Jadex: Implementing a BDI-Infrastructure for JADE Agents

INTELLIGENT AGENTS ARE A MODELLING PARADIGM, BASED ON THE NOTION OF AGENTS WITH MENTAL STATES. THE AGENT METAPHOR IS NOWADAYS USED IN MANY RESEARCH AND INDUSTRY PROJECTS, AND SEVERAL GENERIC AGENT PLATFORMS ARE AVAILABLE. NEVERTHELESS, THERE IS A GAP BETWEEN PLATFORMS CONCENTRATING ON AGENT COMMUNI- CATION INFRASTRUCTURE AND PLATFORMS CONCERNED WITH THE REPRESENTATION OF INTERNAL AGENT CONCEPTS. THIS ARTICLE PRESENTS AN APPROACH TO BRIDGE THIS GAP: JADEX, AN ADD- ON TO THE WIDELY USED JADE AGENT PLATFORM. THE ADD-ON FOLLOWS THE BDI ARCHITEC- TURE, A WELL-KNOWN MODEL FOR REPRESENTING MENTALISTIC CONCEPTS IN THE SYSTEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION. THE ARTICLE PROVIDES AN OVERVIEW OF THE BDI MODEL, AND THE DESIGN AND REALIZATION IN JADEX, AS WELL AS THE INTEGRATION OF THE ADD-ON INTO THE JADE AGENT FRAMEWORK.