MANET: A model for first-class electronic institutions

Abstract

In this paper we present a new approach to model electronic institutions(EIs) that are situated in agent environments where heterogeneous agentsreside. An EI is seen here as an entity that is deployed within an environmentinfrastructure that directly mediates the agents' interaction. The environment allowsthe rules of the EIs, in terms of powers, permissions and obligations tobe perceivable as first class entities by the agents belonging to the institution.We express EIs as first class abstractions that can be inspected, manipulated andmodified, created and destroyed by the agents populating the agent environmentwhere the institution resides. To represent the EIs we utilize the Object EventCalculus (OEC) formalism that deals with the evolution of complex structures intime and we extend it to deal with the mediation of the events and with the perceptionof complex structures and events within institutions. We use an e-Healthmarketplace scenario based on Dutch auctions to illustrate the properties of ourmodel. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012.