LAIMA: A Multi-agent Platform Using Ordered Choice Logic Programming

Multi-agent systems (MAS) can take many forms depending on the characteristics of the agents populating them. Amongst the more demanding properties with respect to the design and implementation of multi-agent system is how these agents may individually reason and communicate about their knowledge and beliefs, with a view to cooperation and collaboration. In this paper, we present a deductive reasoning multi-agent platform using an extension of answer set programming (ASP). We show that it is capable of dealing with the specification and implementation of the system's architecture, communication and the individual agent's reasoning capacities. Agents are represented as Ordered Choice Logic Programs (OCLP) as a way of modelling their knowledge and reasoning capacities, with communication between the agents regulated by uni-directional channels transporting information based on their answer sets. In the implementation of our system we combine the extensibility of the JADE framework with the flexibility of the OCT front-end to the Smodels answer set solver. The power of this approach is demonstrated by a multi-agent system reasoning about equilibria of extensive games with perfect information.

[1]  José Júlio Alferes,et al.  $$\mathcal{M}\mathcal{I}\mathcal{N}\mathcal{E}\mathcal{R}\mathcal{V}\mathcal{A}$$- A Dynamic Logic Programming Agent Architecture , 2001 .

[2]  Paolo Torroni,et al.  USING ABDUCTIVE LOGIC AGENTS FOR MODELING THE JUDICIAL EVALUATION OF CRIMINAL EVIDENCE , 2004, Appl. Artif. Intell..

[3]  Ariel Rubinstein,et al.  A Course in Game Theory , 1995 .

[4]  Alex M. Andrew,et al.  Knowledge Representation, Reasoning and Declarative Problem Solving , 2004 .

[5]  Nicholas R. Jennings,et al.  The Gaia Methodology for Agent-Oriented Analysis and Design , 2000, Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems.

[6]  Marina De Vos,et al.  Implementing OCLP as a front-end for Answer Set Solvers: From Theory to Practice , 2003, Answer Set Programming.

[7]  Marina De Vos,et al.  On the Role of Negation in Choice Logic Programs , 1999, LPNMR.

[8]  Michael Gelfond.  Answer Set Programming and the Design of Deliberative Agents , 2004, ICLP.

[9]  Paolo Mancarella,et al.  Declarative Agent Control , 2004, CLIMA.

[10]  Michael Gelfond,et al.  An A Prolog decision support system for the Space Shuttle , 2001, Answer Set Programming.

[11]  Ilkka Niemelä,et al.  Smodels - An Implementation of the Stable Model and Well-Founded Semantics for Normal LP , 1997, LPNMR.

[12]  Stefania Costantini,et al.  A Logic Programming Language for Multi-agent Systems , 2002, JELIA.

[13]  M. De Vos,et al.  Extending Answer Sets for Logic Programming Agents , 2022 .

[14]  Nicholas R. Jennings,et al.  Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages: A Survey , 1995, ECAI Workshop on Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages.

[15]  Jürgen Dix,et al.  Monitoring Agents using Declarative Planning , 2003, Fundam. Informaticae.

[16]  Gerald Pfeifer,et al.  The KR System dlv: Progress Report, Comparisons and Benchmarks , 1998, KR.

[17]  Martin John Brain.  Undergraduate Dissertation: Incremental Answer Set Programming , 2004 .

[18]  José Júlio Alferes,et al.  MINERVA - A Dynamic Logic Programming Agent Architecture , 2001, ATAL.

[19]  Marina De Vos.  Implementing Ordered Choice Logic Programming using Answer Set Solvers , 2004, FoIKS.

[20]  Lenhart K. Schubert,et al.  Principles of knowledge representation and reasoning : proceedings of the Sixth international conference (KR'98), Trento, Italy, June 2-5, 1998 , 1998 .

[21]  William L. Scherlis,et al.  Compilers and staging transformations , 1986, POPL '86.

[22]  Marc Denecker,et al.  What's in a model? Epistemological analysis of Logic Programming , 2004, Answer Set Programming.

[23]  A. Rubinstein,et al.  A Course in Game Theory , 1995 .