Design agent interaction as a service to agents

Abstract

A common feature of agents is their interaction ability. They need this interaction in order to fulfill their tasks or to cooperate for fulfilling them. This paper presents our approach where the interaction is defined within an interaction module. This interaction module handles protocols and manages interactions between agents. The interaction module is inserted into agents. The paper describes the requirements for such an interaction module and the advantages and drawbacks of the approach. Since a link is required between the reasoning part of the agents and the interaction module, we propose a language for the interconnection based on XML. A second domain of use of the interaction module is given: mobile agents. If the interaction module is defined as a service, agents can use it. In this case, agents do not have to bring an interaction module when moving from site to site. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.