| FIPA | 97/01/24 14:24 |
| FOUNDATION FOR INTELLIGENT PHYSICAL AGENTS | Torino |
| Source: Board of Directors | fipa7115 |
FIPA's Second Call for Proposals
(CFP2)
A good response was obtained to FIPA's first call for
proposals at the Tokyo meeting. On analysing this response in
Turin, a number of areas were identified requiring further work.
FIPA therefore invites further proposals for technologies in
the following categories:
The proposals are intended to be used in the further development of specifications for component technologies that may be used by application developers.
A first draft of the FIPA specification will be produced at the 5th meeting in April 1997, a second draft in July 1997 and a final specification approved and issued at its 7th meeting in October 1997.
The deadline for proposals submitted in response to this call
is 4th April 1997 for consideration at the fifth FIPA meeting on
14-18 April 1997.
Information on the technologies
requested in this second call
This call requests proposals for component technologies which
will help clarify four key areas of agent management. The context
for the call is specified in the FIPA document FIPA7111 : Agent
Management.
1.1 Agent Management Tools
1.1.1 Agent Interface Description Language (AIDL)
The agent directory contains sufficient information for
identifying and accessing individual agents. A language is
required to identify and characterise the content this directory
(i.e. an Agent Interface Description Language). This language
should be used by agents to describe themselves to other agents,
and can be used internally to represent a model of other known
agents. AIDL expressions would be interchanged in messages
between agents using the FIPA inter-agent communication language.
An initial set of properties are identified in section 11.3.1. It
is suggested that this description be extensible and contain
private fields for application specific agent characteristics.
1.1.2 Agent Naming Scheme
A naming scheme is requested which ensures all agents have a
unique identifier in the agent universe.
1.1.3 Service Naming Scheme
A naming scheme is requested which ensures all services have a
unique identifier in the agent universe.
1.2 Agent Management Facilities for Mobile Agents
The requirements for both static and mobile agents are being
addressed by FIPA. Mobile agents require access to resources
which support the migration of agent software from one location
to another. Proposals on all agent management issues specifically
related to agent mobility are welcomed.
1.3 Security Model
Requirements for a security model have been defined in section
10, (FIPA7111). FIPA requests both normative and informative
proposals covering the topic headings outlined in this section.
1.4 Agent Management System (AMS)
An Agent Management System has been identified in the FIPA
reference model. A normative specification for this component
will not be included in the first FIPA specification. However,
the AMS is considered an important component of an agent system
and proposals supporting the definition and characterisation of
issues related to the AMS are welcomed.
Agents can enter into negotiation or cooperation processes
with other agents or humans. These processes vary in complexity,
from simple handshaking, through cooperative task achievement to
complex negotiation and trading exchanges. At any one time, an
agent may be engaged in several overlapping interactions for the
purpose of attaining a particular goal.
Protocols provide guidelines and idioms for the exchange of
messages. They establish common patterns of behaviour by the
participants in the protocol. Interaction protocols are
explicitly shared multi-agent plans consisting solely of
communicative acts.
While rational and deliberative agents do not have to rely
upon specific protocols to engage sensibly in cooperation, it is
convenient to introduce protocols as a planning guideline.
Protocols also allow agents which do not have a formal model or
implementation of the underlying language to effectively
participate in cooperative process.
The FIPA agent communication standard will include a library
of general interaction protocols, to be specified using ARCOL.
The first FIPA CFP resulted in a small number of proposals being
considered for inclusion into the standard FIPA protocol library.
This CFP requests further specific interaction protocols to
extend the library. New communicative acts may be proposed as
part of the submission.
Examples of the kinds of protocols requested include:
The protocol specification should detail the roles of the
participants and the communicative acts with their contents. It
is recommended, but not mandated, to submit the formal definition
of the protocols using ARCOL.
Cooperativity contracts define particular cooperative
behaviours that agents may exhibit towards one another. These
kinds of contracts not only enable agents (and human users) to
infer relevant information from the received answers, but they
also allow to strongly minimise the number of required exchanges
between agents. See the current baseline specification document
for further details.
The FIPA agent communication standard will include a library
of general cooperativity contracts. The underlying principles of
cooperation will be specified using SL. Of course, it is up to
the developers to implement the corresponding mechanisms in their
agents. The first FIPA CFP resulted in a small number of
proposals being considered for inclusion into the standard FIPA
contract library. This CFP requests further specific
cooperativity contracts to extend the library.
Examples include: