Outline of a Formalization of JADE Multi-Agent Systems

This paper proposes a formalization of JADE agents and multi-agent systems based on transition systems. The first section introduces the aims and scope of the research and it focuses the content of the paper. The second section enumerates the abstractions and the structures used in the formalization. Successively, third section presents the formal semantics of the parts of a JADE-based source code that are involved in the management of (i) the life cycle of agents and (ii) the behaviours of agents. Fourth section shows a very simple JADE agent and it exemplifies the use of the proposed transition system. Finally, a brief recapitulation of the work concludes the paper.