IEEE FIPA @ Agentlink3 – TGF-CASA, September 2005, Budapest 1 The IEEE Computer Society FIPA Standards Committee (SC) Foundation for Intelligent Physical

IEEE FIPA @ Agentlink3 – TGF-CASA, September 2005, Budapest

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The IEEE Computer SocietyFIPA Standards Committee

(SC)

Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents http://www.fipa.org

Stefan Poslad, Queen Mary, University of London (Presenter)

Michael Kerstetter, The Boeing Company

Monique Calisti, Whitestein Technologies AG

James Odell, James Odell Associates


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Topics

A little FIPA history

Vision & Approach of the “new” IEEE FIPA SC

More detailed technical visions: Work groups & Study groups


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FIPA ACL Model: rich shared communication semantics to support

knowledge exchange

1. (Request … Book Room X(?)…)2. (Agree (to the request))3. (Inform (booking complete))

We can think of this message as being in 2 parts:1. Message Header: defines agent Combs protocols, e.g., request

interaction, request speech act, sender address, receiver address etc

2. Message Payload (or content): 1. Defines content expression, e.g., register description X2. Refers to Ontologies to define and interrelate terms such as X

In practice agents can communicate using XML-based or other String based interfaces for the message headers and payload

An Interaction of 3 messages ( of 3 different speech acts)

speech acts


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FIPA History: Activities

ACL Msg Transport Agent Management1997 APPS: PA, Travel, Audio-video, VPN

Security, Mobility, Human-Agent Interaction, Ontology Service

1998-9 ACL Msg Transport

Agent Management

Agent Management NomadicACL Interop Architecture2000

Transport, AgentCities, DPMG, JCP, Security

ArchitectureAgreement Mgt

ACL Gateways2001

Infrastructure: Ad-Hoc, Services, Security

Communication: Ontology, Semantics

Software Engineering: Interaction Protocol, Modeling, Methodology

2003

1995 Agent technologies useful, some mature, standardisation useful, standardise generic technologies;

2002 >20 Specs standardised

2005 IEEE FIPA SC formed


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FIPA History: Achievements

Set of standard specifications massively deployed Architecture to support agent-to-agent communication + middleware Communication languages (FIPA ACL) Interaction protocols: from single messages to complex transactions

Further outputs Open source & commercial agent tool-kits, e.g., JADE + many plug-ins,

e.g., Protégé Beans Many projects, e.g., Agentcities global network of FIPA compliant

platforms and services, etc., 2003 survey analysed ~80 public projects JCP specification for agents, JAS, Java Agent Services (JSR00087) AUML: originated in FIPA Modelling activity JADE-Board – 5 telecom companies set up a forum to promote the

JADE FIPA toolkit for mobile telecoms applications


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Topics





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IEEE FIPA SC Vision

The unifying vision for FIPA is organizational interoperability. Such a vision implies interoperability that among pervasive and ad-hoc societies, organizations, teams and individuals, both real and virtual that can:

comprise humans, robots, devices and software agents include both static and dynamic relationships engage in collaborative and competitive activities act autonomously and/or under direction of other

entities; and inter-operate according to pre-determined, on-the-fly,

and/or emergent protocols and procedures.


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IEEE-FIPA Mission Promote agents and agent-based application integration

environments based on appropriate industry standards; Promote a framework for compatible and independent

development of applications; Enable coordination among applications across heterogeneous

networked systems; Adopt a core of commercially available specifications of this

framework and to promote international market acceptance & use; Actively influence the future direction and development of these

adopted specifications; Foster the development of tools and applications that conform to

and extend this framework and to provide a mechanism for certifying compliance with the adopted specifications;

Work with other standards groups that enable the FIPA SC mission through collaboration, bridging, and or reuse of the standards


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IEEE-FIPA Approach

Strategic approach Innovate Reconcile/bridge Migrate existing FIPA standards to IEEE

Tactics Bottom-up self-organization Top-down planning Involvement of users, vendors, standards groups Marketing and awareness (Reach out to the community)

Dual tracks—each with own working groups Vertical track Horizontal track


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Approach

Organization Local small communities (Light-weight footprint) Collaborative workspaces Global organization and meetings

Perspectives Marketplace - what does the market want Implementor driven - what do vendors and actual

developers need/want R&D - what are the technological gaps

Actions Setup FIPA organization & Policies & P Solicit and organize subgroups Set up meetings (Conferences and non-conferences) Elections Beginning work on a standards road map …


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Approach

The old FIPA is not the new FIPA: The original FIPA fit an important niche at its time To succeed, FIPA needs to be adative We are free to reinvent the organization (within IEEE

context) — using both the old and the new.

Resist the “standardize it and they will come” attitude

Solicit the needs of the industry users Need collaboration, not isolation Start small, let it grow Scale the tasks to the available involvement Be organic


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Topics



More detailed technical visions: Work groups & Study groups Agents & Web Services Interoperability Working Group (AWSI

WG)

Human-Agent Interactions Work Group (HAI-WG)

Mobile Agents WG (MA-WG):

Methodology WG

P2P Nomadic Agent WG (P2PNA-WG

Review of FIPA Specifications Study Group (RoFS-SG) proposal


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Agents & Web Services Interoperability Working Group (AWSI WG): Objectives

Agent interoperation with WS Locate, negotiate and interact bi-directionally

Value addition to WS Dialogues, semantics, interaction protocols

FIPA backward compatibility “As much as possible”

Non-interference with WS standards Keep existing WS specs and implementations

Utilize Semantic Web RDF, OWL

Contact: Hiroki Suguri, Comtec, [email protected]


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Service_Agent

Offers_Simple_Service

Simple_Servicehas_Skill_Set

has_Skill_Set

Participant_Skills

Service_Skills

definedBy

Service_Profile

definedBy

Orchestration_Participant_Profile

Blue indicates connection to OWL-S Green indicates work TBD

AWSI WG: 1 older FIPA TC Services

model


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Human-Agent Interactions Work Group (HAI-WG): Objectives

To extend the current FIPA agent-agent standards to human-agent interaction.

The initial focus is on human-agent communications in the context of decision making.

Other contexts and broader issues of human-agent interactions will be considered in future years.

Contact: John Yen, Pennsylvania State University, [email protected]


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Mobile Agents WG (MA-WG): Objectives

Starting from existing specifications, esp. FIPA specification 87 and OMG MASIF

Define new specifications for efficient, reliable, and secure code and data relocation location transparent communication location tracking infrastructure for agent server discovery interoperability on run-time level

We will avoid specific techniques but propose generic protocols and processes

Specifications will be accompanied by referenceimplementations in the form of toolkit independent softwarecomponents.

Contact: Ulrich Pinsdorf, Fraunhofer-Institute IGD, [email protected]


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MA-WG: Open issues

A lot of work was done in the last 10 years,but there are many open problems, e.g.: Migration between heterogeneous platforms Interoperability for mobile code Security concerns of mobile code Representation of mobile code How to develop mobile agents? Design-

Patterns? Mobile Agent UML?


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Methodology WG: Objectives

Let the developer of a multi-agent system create his own methodology

Through assembling pieces of the process (method fragments) from a method base. :

Suited for the specific problem/system to be built

Not conflicting with his (development) environmental constraints

Coherent with his (or his group) knowledge and skills

Supported by a CASE tool

Using a standard modeling language

Contact: Massimo Cossentino, Italian National Resource Council [email protected]


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The Method Engineer analyzes the problem and the development context/people to

deduce new methodology

features

Method Engineering:people, artifacts and tools

Method Engineer

Uses

Design Methodology

Defines Is adopted by

SystemDesigner

CAMEToolsFragments

Repository

Uses

CASETools

Perceives

Problem

Designs Solve

Agents

Instantiate

System Specifications

Produce

SpecifyThe Method

Engineer uses a CAME tool to

compose the new methodology by

reusing fragments from the repository

The CAME tool is used to instantiate

a methodology specific tool

The System Designer using the

CASE tool specifies and

develops the agent solution


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P2P Nomadic Agent WG (P2PNA-WG): Objectives

The objective is: to define a specification for P2P Nomadic Agents, capable

of running on small or embedded devices, and to support distributed implementation of applications for

consumer devices, cellular communications and robots, etc. over a pure P2P network.

This specification will: leverage presence and search mechanisms of underlying

P2P infrastructures such as JXTA, Chord, Bluetooth, etc. propose the minimal required modifications of existing FIPA

specifications to extend their reach to P2P Nomadic Agents.

Contact: Bernard Burg, Panasonic, [email protected]


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A P2PNA-WG Use Case: Home Environment

Our life starts to be invaded by P2P nomadic devices

We love it! because it: provides a superior experience

thanks to specialized devices in a competitive market

allows (free) P2P services updates automatically does not require computer literacy gives an integrated environmentHowever, to do this, there is a need of: an intelligence on top of the existing

P2P systems, Agents are the best solution because of their distributed reasoning and negotiation capabilities.

a P2P Nomadic Agent Standard

IP Camera

Plasma TV

Mobile PhoneSkype Phone

HelloKittyROBO

Home Entertainment System

Rice Cooker

Computer

Answering systemAlarm system

These devices are network capable through WiFi, bluetooth, PLC …


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Review of FIPA Specifications Study Group (RoFS-SG) proposal:

objectives • Provide a summary of the organization of the

FIPA specifications • Provide an analysis of the scope,

assumptions, design issues for the specifications • Make recommendations for possible

specification maintenance / modifications to support new specification opportunities

• Provide an assessment of related standardization in others standards bodies.

Contact Person: Stefan Poslad, Queen Mary, University of London, [email protected]


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RoFS-SG: e.g., Semantics review

1996 20031998 2002Society: Speech Acts, BDI /SL model

Content, SL

Society: Speech act limits

Mentalist Model limits

Interactions,

Symbolic: linguistic

?????

2001

Ontology:

ACL- MetaModel

Society: Institutions

StandardsACL models in SL


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Topics





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Useful references

FIPA Web-site http://www.fipa.org, soon to be migrated to IEEE web-site

Current FIPA email reflector: [email protected] IEEE-FIPA contacts:(Acting president):James Odell, James Odell Associates, email

[email protected]

Stefan Poslad, Queen Mary, University of London, stefan.poslad @elec.qmul.ac.uk

Michael Kerstetter, The Boeing Company, [email protected]

Monique Calisti, Whitestein Technologies AG, [email protected]

Documents

IEEE FIPA @ Agentlink3 – TGF-CASA, September 2005, Budapest 1 The IEEE Computer Society FIPA Standards Committee (SC) Foundation for Intelligent Physical