Multi-Agent Systems

Multi-Agent Oriented Programming

This course on Multi-Agent Systems is part of the Web Intelligence Master cursus at Mines Saint-Etienne and Jean Monnet University in Saint-Etienne.

In this course, the focus is on Multi-Agent Oriented Programming (MAOP). Besides learning foundations and state of the art works done on this topic in the Multi-Agent domain, you will learn how to take a MAOP approach for developping decentralized open systems.

The Multi-Agent Oriented Programming approach consists in a composition of Agent Oriented Programming (AOP), Environment Oriented Programming (EOP), Interaction Oriented Programming (IOP) and Organization Oriented Programming (OOP). We use the JaCaMo platform for the practical exercises that are presented in this course. This programming platform results from the integration of the Jason Agent Programming Language, CArTaGo Environment Programming platform and MOISE Organization programming platform.

In this first part, you will learn how to configure your working environment.

In the following parts, you will then learn how to program Jason agents situated in a simple shared environment (cf. AOP), how to enrich the shared environment with artifacts that agents can observe and/or act on (cf. EOP), how to develop complex interactions among agents (cf. IOP), how to develop agents organizations used to coordinate and regulate autonomous agents interacting with each other in a shared environment (cf. OOP).

The last set of practical exercises aims at using all these dimensions for developping several use cases of MAOP (cf. UseCase).

II. Working Environment Configuration

Practical work

  • Create a directory mas with a sub-directory maop in your working directory
  • Launch /eclipse/ choosing as workspace this maop directory.
  • Install in mas the JaCaMo platform (packaging of the Jason, CArtAgO, Moise distributions). The current version of this java-based platform can be dowloaded here (download the latest version)
  • Install JaCaMo-IDE plugin in eclipse (see tutorial for installing and using this plugin).

Notes

  • All your practical exercises will go in the maop workspace. For each exercise, you will create a dedicated jacamo project.

III. Practical Resources for MAOP

The API and documentations of the components of the JaCaMo platform can be accessed here:

Olivier Boissier October 2015