Standardizing Agent Communication

An Agent Communication Language (ACL) is a collection of speech-act-like message types, with agreed-upon semantics, which facilitate the knowledge and information exchange between software agents. From Knowledge Query and Manipulation Language (KQML) to FIPA ACL, ACL’s have been a cornerstone for the development of systems of communicating agents, and simultaneously they have been the subject of intensive standardization efforts. Standardization’s goal is usability. As a result, although the initial focus on ACL’s revolved around establishing the semantics of ACL’s, a variety of usability-related questions have entered the picture of standardizing communication among agents. In this article, we present these questions and the work that addresses them, alongside the historical evolution of ACL’s, their semantics and the results of their standardization.