Toward a programming theory for rational agents

Abstract

An important problem in agent verification is a lack of proper understanding of the relation between agent programs on the one hand and agent logics on the other. Understanding this relation would help to establish that an agent programming language is both conceptually well-founded and well-behaved, as well as yield a way to reason about agent programs by means of agent logics. As a step toward bridging this gap, we study several issues that need to be resolved in order to establish a precise mathematical relation between a modal agent logic and an agent programming language specified by means of an operational semantics. In this paper, we present an agent programming theory that provides both an agent programming language as well as a corresponding agent verification logic to verify agent programs. The theory is developed in stages to show, first, how a modal semantics can be grounded in a state-based semantics, and, second, how denotational semantics can be used to define the mathematical relation connecting the logic and agent programming language. Additionally, it is shown how to integrate declarative goals and add precompiled plans to the programming theory. In particular, we discuss the use of the concept of higher-order goals in our theory. Other issues such as a complete axiomatization and the complexity of decision procedures for the verification logic are not the focus of this paper and remain for future investigation.

Robotics and Integrated Formal Methods: Necessity Meets Opportunity

“…Relating agent programs, written in an agent programming language, and agent (verification) logics remains an open problem. One approach has been to define an agent programming theory combining an agent programming language and verification logic [15]. Program model-checking such as the Model-Checker for Multi-Agent Systems (MCMAS), has been used to verify heterogeneous agents interacting with an environment [7]; and Agent Java PathFinder (AJPF) [10], which can model-check programs written in a particular style of agent language.…”

Formal development of multi-agent systems using MAZE

“…Much of this work focusses on the high-level formalisation and verification of agents' "intelligent" behaviours. Hindriks et al [24] presents an agent programming theory which provides both an agent programming language and a corresponding verification logic to verify such agent programs. Fisher [25] formalises the deliberation of agents using executable temporal logic.…”

Tractable Reasoning about Agent Programming in Dynamic Preference Logic

“…Perhaps the work most related to ours in spirit is that of Hindriks and Meyer [13]. They propose a dynamic logic for agents and show that this logic has an equivalent semantics based on the operational semantics of the programming language.…”