Logical implementation of uncertain agents

Abstract

We consider the representation and execution of agents specified using temporal logics. Previous work in this area has provided a basis for the direct execution of agent specifications, and has been extended to allow the handling of agent beliefs, deliberation and multi-agent groups. However, the key problem of uncertainty has not been tackled. Given that agents work in unknown environments, and interact with other agents that may, in turn, be unpredictable, then it is essential for any formal agent description to incorporate some mechanism for capturing this aspect. Within the framework of executable specifications, formal descriptions involving uncertainty must also be executable. The contribution of this paper is to extend executable temporal logic in order to allow the representation and execution of uncertain statements within agents. In particular, we extend the basis of the METATEM temporal framework with a probabilistic belief dimension captured by the recently introduced PFK D45 logic. We provide a description of the extended logic, the translation procedure for formulae in this extended logic to an executable normal form, and the execution algorithm for such formulae. We also outline technical results concerning the correctness of the translation to the normal form and the completeness of the execution mechanism. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.