Modeling and verifying multi-agent behaviors using predicate/transition nets

Dianxiang Xu, Richard Volz, Thomas Ioerger, John Yen

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

In a multi-agent system, how agents accomplish a goal task is usually specified by multi-agent plans built from basic actions (e.g. operators) of which the agents are capable. A critical problem with such an approach is how can the designer make sure the plans are reliable. To tackle this problem, this paper presents a formal approach for modeling and analyzing multi-agent behaviors using Predicate/Transition (PrT) nets, a high-level formalism of Petri nets. We construct a multi-agent model by representing agent capabilities as transitions. To verify a multi-agent PrT model, we adapt the planning graphs as a compact structure for the reachability analysis. We also demonstrate that, based on the PrT model, whether parallel actions specified in multi-agent plans can be executed in parallel and whether the plans guarantee the achievement of the goal can be verified by analyzing the dependency relations among the transitions.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 14th International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, SEKE '02
Pages193-200
Number of pages8
DOIs
StatePublished - 2002
Event14th International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, SEKE '02 - Ischia, Italy
Duration: Jul 15 2002Jul 19 2002

Publication series

NameACM International Conference Proceeding Series
Volume27

Other

Other14th International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, SEKE '02
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityIschia
Period7/15/027/19/02

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Software
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Computer Networks and Communications

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