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Programming MAS with Artifacts

Alessandro Ricci, Mirko Viroli, Andrea Omicini
This paper introduces the notion of artifact as a first-class abstraction in MASs (multi-agent systems) and focuses on its impact on MAS programming. Artifacts are runtime devices providing some kind of function or service which agents can fruitfully use - both individually and collectively - to achieve their individual as well as social objectives. Artifacts can be conceived (and programmed) as basic building blocks to model and build agent (working) environments. Besides introducing a conceptual and modelling framework, the paper discusses the impact of this new notion on MAS programming, focussing in particular on MAS composed by cognitive agents. To make the discussion more concrete, we provide an example scenario featuring 3APL agents whose coordination activity is supported by tuple centres - an existing coordination model providing some of the basic properties of artifacts for MASs.
Keywords: A&A, artifacts, cartago, multi-agent systems, agent-oriented computing, programming MAS
Programming Multi-Agent Systems, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence) 3862, pages 206-221, March 2006.
Rafael P. Bordini, Mehdi Dastani, Jürgen Dix, Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni (eds.), Springer Berlin Heidelberg
3rd International Workshop (PROMAS 2005), AAMAS 2005, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 26 July 2005. Revised and Invited Papers 
@incollection{artifacts-promasIII,
	AcmId = {2180118},
	Author = {Ricci, Alessandro and Viroli, Mirko and Omicini, Andrea},
	Booktitle = {Programming Multi-Agent Systems},
	Doi = {10.1007/11678823_13},
	Editor = {Bordini, Rafael P. and Dastani, Mehdi and Dix, J{\"u}rgen and El Fallah Seghrouchni, Amal},
	Isbn = {978-3-540-32616-8},
	Isbn-Online = {978-3-540-32617-5},
	Isbn-10 = {3-540-32616-2},
	Issn = {0302-9743},
	Month = mar,
	Note = {3rd International Workshop (PROMAS 2005), AAMAS 2005, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 26~} # jul # {~2005. Revised and Invited Papers},
	Pages = {206--221},
	Publisher = {Springer Berlin Heidelberg},
	ScopusId = {2-s2.0-33745661012},
	Series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science},
	Subseries = {Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence},
	Title = {Programming {MAS} with Artifacts},
	Url = {http://link.springer.com/10.1007/11678823_13},
	Volume = 3862,
	WosId = {000236893200013},
	Year = 2006}