Linking Agent Concepts and Methodology with CAN

The design, implementation and application of agent technology to significant problems is an inherently complex task. In order to enable programmers who are not agent experts to develop such systems, it is necessary not only to simplify current agent programming systems (such as JACK) but also to integrate such systems into a well-understood framework. Our vision for achieving this involves the three pillars of concepts, notation and methodology. These are supported by a formal semantics and by various system tools. In this paper we give a brief overview of our concepts and methodology, and show how a notation, together with a formal semantics for it, can be designed as a bridge between concepts and methodology, thus yielding a comprehensive and holistic picture of agent development. The notation is in the tradition of AgentSpeak and Kinny’s Ψ but is closer to BDI theories than its predecessors – in particular it has an explicit notion of goal. Paper ID: 165