| |
---|
| | <p><a href="papers/dp2008-02.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 1.3 MB)</p> |
---|
| | |
---|
| | <hr> |
---|
| | |
---|
| | <h3><a name="#dp2008-03">2008/03: On the testability of BDI agent systems</a></h3> |
---|
| | <h4>M. Winikoff and S. Cranefield</h4> |
---|
| | |
---|
| | <p>Before deploying a software system we need to assure ourselves (and stake-holders) that the system will behave correctly. This assurance is usually done by testing the system. However, it is intuitively obvious that adaptive systems, including agent-based systems, can exhibit complex behaviour, and are thus harder to test. In this paper we examine this “obvious intuition” in the case of Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) agents. We analyse the size of the behaviour space of BDI agents and show that although the intuition is correct, the factors that influence the size are not what we expected them to be; specifically, we found that the introduction of failure handling had a much larger effect on the size of the behaviour space than we expected. We also discuss the implications of these findings on the testability of BDI agents.</p> |
---|
| | |
---|
| | <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>testing, |
---|
| | complexity, |
---|
| | validation, |
---|
| | belief-desire-intention (BDI)</p> |
---|
| | |
---|
| | <p><a href="papers/dp2008-03.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 472 KB)</p> |
---|
| | |
---|
| | <hr> |
---|
| | |
---|
| | <h3><a name="#dp2008-04">2008/04: Partner selection mechanisms for agent cooperation</a></h3> |
---|
| | <h4>T. Ebadi, M. Purvis and M. Purvis</h4> |
---|
| | |
---|
| | <p>In a multi-agent system, a single agent may not be capable of completing complex tasks. Therefore agents are required to form a team to fulfill the task requirements. In this paper an agent model is introduced that facilitates cooperation among agents. A multi-threaded multi-agent simulation framework is designed to test the model. The experimental results demonstrate that the model is significantly useful in achieving cooperation under various environmental constraints. It also allows agents to adjust their teammate selection strategies according to environmental constraints.</p> |
---|
| |
---|
|