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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/R27518/01
Title: Verifiable Languages & Protocols For Multi-Agent Systems
Principal Investigator: Wooldridge, Professor M
Other Investigators:
Parsons, Professor S Parsons, Dr S
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Computer Science
Organisation: University of Liverpool
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 September 2001 Ends: 31 August 2004 Value (£): 139,926
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Artificial Intelligence Fundamentals of Computing
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Information Technologies No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
One of the main obstacles standing in the way of the wider takeup of agent technology is the interoperability requirement: it must be possible for agents built by different organisations using different technologies to communication in an agreed language with a universally accepted semantics. Although several candidate agent communication languages have been developed (notably the FIPA language), these have suffered from the fact that their semantics are not verifiable. In short, it is not possible to determine whether or not any system which claims to conform to the language standard actually does so. In previous work, we have developed an approach to giving the semantics of an agent communication language such that conformance testing is, in principle at least, possible. This approach involves the use of epistemic temporal logics (le temporal logics containing knowledge operators). In this project, we aim to extend and refine this preliminary work by giving and epistemic temporal semantics to a subset of the FIPA communication language. We will then develop preliminary deductive and model checking systems for verifying conformance to the semantics. We will provide a proof of concept for our techniques by applying them to a case study, and will evaluate their success.
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Organisation Website: http://www.liv.ac.uk