Composing Multi-agent Systems with Interagents

THIS PAPER PRESENT AN INFRAESTRUCTURE FOR EASING THE CONSTRUCTION OF AGENT - BASED SYSTEMS. OUR PROPOSAL RELIES UPON TWO BASIC ELEMENTS: CONVERSATION PROTOCOLS, COORDINATION PATTERNS THAT IMPOSE A SET OF RULES ON THE COMMUNICATIVE ACTS UTTERED BY THE AGENTS PARTICIPATING IN A CONVERSATION (WHAT CAN BE SAID, TO WHOM, AND WHEN), AND INTERAGENTS, AUTONOMUS SOFTWARE AGENTS THAT MEDIATE THE INTERACTION BETWEEN EACH AGENT AND THE AGENT SOCIETY. WE ALSO INTRODUCE JIM, OUR JAVA - BASED IMPLEMENTATION OF A GENERAL - PURPOSE INTERAGENT THAT EMPLOYS CONVERSATIONS PROTOCOLE FOR MEADING CONVERSATIONS AMONG AGENTS. FINALLY, WE ILLUSTRATE THE USE OF INTEGRAGENTS BY EXPLAINING THE SEVERAL ROLES THAT THEY PLAY IN FM ( RODRIGUEZ AGUILAR AND MARTIN, 1999), AN AGENT- MEDIATED ELECTRONIC AUCTION MARKET.