Modelling approach and tool for designing protocols for automated cooperation in multi-agent systems

Abstract

The goal of our work is to provide a platform for the development of multi-agent systems. Based on a modelling appoach of cooperation behaviors called COPROM, we have developed a tool called MASCOOF. The latter allows developers to define cooperation protocols in such a way that they are directly usable by the agents to perform cooperative behavior during the problem resolution. Therefore, developers are provided with a language called COOPLAS which allows the specification of protocols for cooperation which the developer desires the agents in his system to use[5,6]. The developer is given via this language the means to define the global structure of the cooperation process in terms of states of conversation and transitions between those states. One problem investigated by our modelling appoach is that of automated meeting scheduling.