Logic-Based Specification Languages for Intelligent Software Agents

The research field of Agent-Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) aims to find abstractions, languages, methodologies and toolkits for modeling, verifying, validating and prototyping complex applications conceptualized as Multiagent Systems (MASs). A very lively research sub-field studies how formal methods can be used for AOSE. This paper presents a detailed survey of six logic-based executable agent specification languages that have been chosen for their potential to be integrated in our ARPEGGIO project, an open framework for specifying and prototyping a MAS. The six languages are ConGoLog, Agent-0, the IMPACT agent programming language, DyLog, Concurrent METATEM and Ehhf. For each executable language, the logic foundations are described and an example of use is shown. A comparison of the six languages and a survey of similar approaches complete the paper, together with considerations of the advantages of using logic-based languages in MAS modeling and prototyping.Comment: 67 pages, 1 table, 1 figure. Accepted for publication by the Journal "Theory and Practice of Logic Programming", volume 4, Maurice Bruynooghe Editor-in-Chie

Towards VEsNA, a Framework for Managing Virtual Environments via Natural Language Agents

Automating a factory where robots are involved is neither trivial nor cheap. Engineering the factory automation process in such a way that return of interest is maximized and risk for workers and equipment is minimized, is hence of paramount importance. Simulation can be a game changer in this scenario but requires advanced programming skills that domain experts and industrial designers might not have. In this paper we present the preliminary design and implementation of a general-purpose framework for creating and exploiting Virtual Environments via Natural language Agents (VEsNA). VEsNA takes advantage of agent-based technologies and natural language processing to enhance the design of virtual environments. The natural language input provided to VEsNA is understood by a chatbot and passed to a cognitive intelligent agent that implements the logic behind displacing objects in the virtual environment. In the VEsNA vision, the intelligent agent will be able to reason on this displacement and on its compliance to legal and normative constraints. It will also be able to implement what-if analysis and case-based reasoning. Objects populating the virtual environment will include active objects and will populate a dynamic simulation whose outcomes will be interpreted by the cognitive agent; explanations and suggestions will be passed back to the user by the chatbot

Logical Judges Challenge Human Judges on the Strange Case of B.C.-Valjean

On May 12th, 2020, during the course entitled Artificial Intelligence and Jurisdiction Practice organized by the Italian School of Magistracy, more than 70 magistrates followed our demonstration of a Prolog logical judge reasoning on an armed robbery case. Although the implemented logical judge is just an exercise of knowledge representation and simple deductive reasoning, a practical demonstration of an automated reasoning tool to such a large audience of potential end-users represents a first and unique attempt in Italy and, to the best of our knowledge, in the international panorama. In this paper we present the case addressed by the logical judge - a real case already addressed by a human judge in 2015 - and the feedback on the demonstration collected from the attendees

Agents interoperability via conformance modulo mapping

We present an algorithm for establishing a flexible conformance relation between two local agent interaction protocols (LAIPs) based on mappings involving agents and messages, respectively. Conformance is in fact computed "modulo mapping": two LAIPs \u3c4 and \u3c4 may involve different agents and use different syntax for messages, but may still be found to be conformant provided that a given map from entities appearing in \u3c4 to corresponding entities in \u3c4 is applied. LAIPs are modelled as trace expressions whose high expressive power allows for the design of protocols that could not be specified using finite state automata or equivalent formalisms. This expressive power makes the problem of stating if \u3c4 conforms to \u3c4 undecidable. We cope with this problem by over-approximating trace expressions that may lead to infinite computations, obtaining a sound but not complete implementation of the proposed conformance check

Decentralizing MAS Monitoring with DecAMon

We describe DecAMon, an algorithm for decentralizing the monitoring of the MAS communicative behavior described via an Agent Interaction Protocol (AIP). If some agents in the MAS are grouped together and monitored by the same monitor, instead of individually, a partial decentralization of the monitoring activity can still be obtained even if the "unique point of choice" (a.k.a. local choice) and "connectedness for sequence" (a.k.a. causality) coherence conditions are not satisfied by the protocol. Given an AIP specification, DecAMon outputs a set of "Monitoring Safe Partitions" of the agents, namely partitions P which ensure that having one monitor in charge for each group of agents in P allows detection of all and only the protocol violations that a fully centralized monitor would detect. In order to specify AIPs we use "trace expressions": this formalism can express event traces that are not context-free and can model both synchronous and asynchronous communication just by changing the underlying notion of event

OntologyBeanGenerator 5.0: Extending ontology concepts with methods and exceptions

When modeling and implementing complex systems based on agents and artifacts, achieving semantic interoperability is not only useful, but often necessary. A commonly adopted solution to manage complex and real MASs is adopting a Model Driven methodology, which uses an ontology as the formal representation of the domain, and then exploiting some existing tool to automatically generate code for agents in the MAS, to let them interact according to the model. While this approach is satisfactorily supported when the target MAS environment is Jason, less support is provided to Jade MASs, despite Jade's large adoption for real MASs development. So, considering the great support given by the automatic code generation starting from a formal model, and the large community working on Jade MASs, in this work we present an extension of the OntologyBeanGenerator plugin for Prot\ue9g\ue9, used to generate a Java representation of an OWL ontology for Jade. We improved the OntologyBeanGenerator tool to support the modeling of exceptions, formalized at the ontology level, and of methods associated with ontology elements, to set the interface of concrete objects (artifacts) at design stage. This extension allows us to integrate in a Model Driven approach a support for the formal definition of artifacts and provide an automatic generation of Jade code/interfaces to interact with them respecting the model

Logic-based Technologies for Multi-agent Systems: A Systematic Literature Review

Precisely when the success of artificial intelligence (AI) sub-symbolic techniques makes them be identified with the whole AI by many non-computerscientists and non-technical media, symbolic approaches are getting more and more attention as those that could make AI amenable to human understanding. Given the recurring cycles in the AI history, we expect that a revamp of technologies often tagged as “classical AI” – in particular, logic-based ones will take place in the next few years. On the other hand, agents and multi-agent systems (MAS) have been at the core of the design of intelligent systems since their very beginning, and their long-term connection with logic-based technologies, which characterised their early days, might open new ways to engineer explainable intelligent systems. This is why understanding the current status of logic-based technologies for MAS is nowadays of paramount importance. Accordingly, this paper aims at providing a comprehensive view of those technologies by making them the subject of a systematic literature review (SLR). The resulting technologies are discussed and evaluated from two different perspectives: the MAS and the logic-based ones

I Teatri anatomici di Bologna Parte II.

In Bologna, the 1637 construction of the anatomical theatre of Archiginnasio for the public lessons was a turning point for the study of anatomy. On the one hand, this theatre was a place officially dedicated to the practise of science; on the other hand, it was also a ceremonial space: professors of the University taught students and stated their importance in the social environment in the presence of politicians, following specific rituals. Before the inauguration of the thea-tre of Archiginnasio as the official seat for public dissec-tion, anatomy had been practised in the city for almost three centuries; during this period autopsies were carried out in different settings that developed in connection with the evolution of medicine and theatres. Art, science and culture cooperated together in a history that started from the Middle Age, passed through Humanism and Renaissance and ended in the baroque theatre of the seventeenth century. The anatomical theatres built before 1637 have been pulled down, above all because most of them weren’t designed to survive. We can study them thanks to some testimonies, imag-es and a few documents that told us the articulated history of anatomy in Bologna. In the present paper I retrace this history, passing through the first dissections in basic rooms, through the temporary theatres and through the first ana-tomical theatre of Archiginnasio, preciding the one of 1637. The lack of documents makes it difficult to establish the shape and the exact location of the ancient anatomical thea-tres, so my attention will be focused on the urban localiza-tion of them and on their relationship with the city, in a his-tory that runs along three centuries.La realizzazione del teatro dell’Archiginnasio, avvenuta nel 1637, segna un punto di svolta nella pratica anatomica della città di Bologna. Questa costruzione diventa un luogo di scienza e, allo stesso tempo, un simbolo e uno spazio ceri-moniale dove, seguendo precisi rituali, il corpo docente si ritrova non solo per insegnare, ma anche per ostentare il proprio ruolo all’interno della città e davanti ai rappresentanti politici. Prima dell’inaugurazione di questa sede ufficiale, l’anatomia felsinea ha già alle spalle più di tre secoli di vita, durante i quali le dissezioni sono avvenute in luoghi differenti, che si sono sviluppati in parallelo all’evoluzione della medicina e alla storia del teatro. Arte, scienza e cultura hanno intrecciato i loro potenziali in un percorso che dal Medioevo passa per l’Umanesimo e il Rinascimento, concludendosi infine nella seicentesca sala barocca. I teatri anatomici precedenti a questa sono andati distrutti, anche perché la maggior parte non era progettata per durare. Possiamo ricostruirli però attraverso testimonianze, immagini e documenti che raccontano la complessità dell’anatomia bolognese. Nel presente articolo ripercorro questa storia, par-tendo dalle prime sperimentazioni in stanze semplici, arrivando alla costruzione dei teatri temporanei fino al primo teatro anatomico dell’Archiginnasio, precedente a quello del 1637. È molto difficile tracciare esattamente la forma e la collocazione dei teatri scomparsi, quindi la mia attenzione sarà focalizzata maggiormente sulla loro localizzazione urbana e sul rapporto con la città circostante, in un viaggio che comprende più di tre secoli di storia