Multi-agent systems with virtual stigmergy

Abstract

We introduce a simple language for multi-agent systems that lends itself to intuitive design of local specifications. Agents operate on (parts of) a decentralized data structure, the stigmergy, that contains their (partial) knowledge. Such knowledge is asynchronously propagated across local stigmergies. In this way, local changes may influence global behaviour. The main novelty is in that our interaction mechanism combines stigmergic interaction with attribute-based communication. Specific conditions for interaction can be expressed in the form of predicates over exposed features of the agents. Additionally, agents may access a global environment. After presenting the language, we show its expressiveness on some illustrative case studies. We also include some preliminary results towards automated verification by relying on a mechanizable symbolic encoding that allows to exploit verification tools for mainstream languages.