Coordination of Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Systems: Programming the Interaction

By Enrico Denti
Dottorato di Ricerca in Ingegneria Elettronica e Informatica
Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna.
Febbraio 1998

Abstract

Component technology is radically altering the way software systems are designed: today, most systems are designed by combining and integrating (possibly heterogeneous) components, so as to reduce development time and reuse existing software and subsystems. Each system feature is typically is mapped onto a singl ecomponent, making it possible to add new components when new functionalities are needed, and/or to replace older components when necessary. Moreover, it helps facing the problem of a smooth evolution of older systems, with legacy (but still working and valuable) components, into newer systems providing new services and possibly offering new user interfaces. […]

These issues constitute the main motivations for the development of the ACLT (Agents Communication through Logic Theories) coordination model presented in this thesis. ACLT is based on the notion of tuple centre, which is inspired to a Linda-like tuple space, but is an active communication abstraction, programmable through reactions to communication events

 

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