A generic formal framework for constructing agent interaction protocols
Agent interaction protocols (AIP) design is one of the principal issues for building multi-agent systems. Indeed, the construction of AIP should integrate theories, methodologies and tools. We propose in this paper a unifying framework that provides a generic agent architecture to be reused as well as a methodology to construct and refine AIP specifications in an incremental way. This framework is based on the highly expressive formal language Lotos and its related technologies, such as finite state machines and temporal logics. Hence, the proposed framework also facilitates formal validation and verification of AIP specifications using rigorous tools. We argue that there are three layers of semantics of Lotos specifications that can improve Lotos expressivity in describing agent interaction. Therefore, this framework can describe almost all aspects of agent interaction and at different abstraction levels. In addition, we demonstrate how to generate an online auction protocol from the generic framework, and how to validate and verify this protocol.
agent interaction protocols lotos validation online auction protocol formal specifications model-checking verification