Agents in formal language theory: An overview

Abstract

Agent-based systems are one of the most important areas of research and development that have emerged in information technology in the 1990s. The concept of agent can be found in a range of disciplines. The metaphor of autonomous problem solving entities cooperating and coordinating to achieve their objectives is a natural way of conceptualizing many problems. An important topic in the field of multi-agent systems concerns formalization. To develop formal models for agency that can be used both as the basis of an implementation and also as a precise but general frameworks is necessary. In this paper we present three agent-based models that have been defined in the field of formal language theory: colonies, eco-grammar systems and networks of evolutionary processors. We claim that those agent models may contribute to the field of agent technologies by offering a highly formalized framework that could be applied to many different issues. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.