LightJason - A BDI Framework Inspired by Jason

Current BDI agent frameworks often lack necessary modularity, scalability and are hard to integrate with non-agent applications. This paper reports ongoing research on LightJason, a multi-agent BDI framework based on AgentSpeak(L), ne-tuned to concurrent plan execution in a distributed framework; LightJason aims at e cient and scalable integration with existing platforms. We state requirements for BDI agent languages and corresponding runtime systems, and present the key concepts and initial implementation of LightJason in the light of these requirements. Based on a set of requirements derived for scalable, modular BDI frameworks, the core contribution of this paper is the de nition of a formal modular grammar for AgentSpeak(L++), a modular extension of AgentSpeak(L), and its underlying scalable runtime system. A preliminary validation of LightJason is given by means of an example evacuation scenario, an experimental analysis of the runtime performance, and a qualitative comparison with the Jason platform.