In this paper, we introduce a transactional workflow ontology that can be used to extend cooperative agent systems. Multi-agent systems generally use messaging protocols to implement the system, but the protocols are hardwired in the agents. We identified this inflexibility problem when we implemented a prototype agent system BriefsAgents that used DAML+OIL-based ontology for data transmission between agents. Ontology-based workflow description enables the agents to use a workflow engine to run their internal state, instead of hard-wiring the state model in the implementation. In addition, agents can communicate their workflow to other agents, and implement reliable transaction control. The proposed workflow ontology uses similar principles for transactions as our WorkMan system, but different transaction models can be used.
[1]
Anders Berglund,et al.
Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Version 1.0
,
1998
.
[2]
H. Van Dyke Parunak,et al.
Representing Agent Interaction Protocols in UML
,
2000,
AOSE.
[3]
Nicholas R. Jennings,et al.
Applied Artificial Intelligence: An International Journal
,
2022
.
[4]
D. Box,et al.
Simple object access protocol (SOAP) 1.1
,
2000
.
[5]
J. Puustjarvi.
Options: a way for achieving failure atomicity in the WorkMan system
,
2001,
Proceedings Seventh International Conference on Database Systems for Advanced Applications. DASFAA 2001.