IDE-eli: An Integrated Development Environment for Electronic Institutions Carles Sierra, Bruno Rosell, Juan A. Rodríguez-Aguilar, Pablo Noriega, Marc Esteva, Guifré Cuní, David de la Cruz, Josep Ll. Arcos Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, IIIA Spanish Scientific Research Council, CSIC

Introduction Open multi-agent systems are populated by heterogeneous and self-interested agents, developed by different people, using different languages and architectures. Research issue: need for appropriate methodologies and software tools which give support to the analysis, design, and development of open systems. Goal: principled design and development of open multi agent systems.

Approach Objetivo: creación de entornos, estructuras reguladoras para sociedades de agentes Nuestro objetivo se puede ver como un problema de control. Queremos garantizar unas ciertas propiedades globales en un sistema multiagente, pero nuestra única manera de hacerlo es vía estructuras reguladoras Institutions in the sense proposed by North “… set of artificial constraints that articulate agent interactions”.

EI Development cycle

Methodology and software tools in IDE-eli ISLANDER aBuilder SimDei AMELI Monitoring Tool

Electronic Institution Specification with ISLANDER ISLANDER permite especificación de los componentes de una institución electrónica Common Ontology and language Agent Roles Multi-agent Protocols Network of protocols Norms

Electronic Institution Specification with ISLANDER PERFORMATIVE STRUCTURE (NETWORK OF PROTOCOLS) SCENE (MULTI-AGENT PROTOCOL) ROLES NORMS Buyers’ Payment

Electronic Institution simulation with SIMDEI eI.xml Observables Expected Behavior RePast eI model analysis

Electronic Institution simulation with SIMDEI

Agent development with aBuilder

Electronic Institution Infrastructure Our approach Usual approach

AMELI architecture

AMELI functionalities MEDIATION To facilitate interagent communication within conversations. COORDINATION AND ENFORCEMENT To guarantee the correct evolution of each conversation (preventing errors made by the participating agents by filtering erroneous illocutions, thus protecting the institution). To guarantee that agents’ movements between scenes comply with the specification. To control which obligations participating agents acquire and fulfil. INFORMATION MANAGEMENT To facilitate participating agents the information they need to successfully participate in the institution.

Simulating electronic institutions Agents Schedule The Model The Interface Probes ELECTRONIC INSTITUTION (environment) OBJECT LEVEL AGENT LEVEL

Test and Deployment with AMELI - Monitoring

Test and Deployment with AMELI - Monitoring

AMELI implementation features Agent-based Realised as a middleware layer Architecturally neutral General purpose (can interpret any institution specification) Communication neutral Scalable (it can be distributed among several machines)

Conclusions Engineering open multi-agent systems is a highly complex task. Electronic institutions introduce normative (regulatory) environments that structure agent interactions, establishing at each moment what agents are permitted and forbidden to do. We have presented an electronic institutions development environment that supports the specification, verification, analysis, execution, and monitoring of open multi-agent systems.