Institutionalising Open Multi-agent Systems. a Formal Approach

In this report we argue that open agent organisations can be eeectively designed and implemented as institutionalised electronic organisations (electronic institutions) composed of a vast amount of heterogeneous (human and software) agents playing diierent roles and interacting by means of illocutions. Here we take the view that the design and development of electronic institutions must be guided by a principled methodology. Along this direction, we advocate for the presence of an underlying formal method that underpins the use of structured design techniques and formal analysis, facilitating development, composition and reuse. For this purpose we propose a speciication formalism for electronic institutions that founds their subsequent design, analysis and development.