TABLE OF CONTENTS Lars Braubach, Alexander Pokahr and Winfried Lamersdorf
Abstract. Nowadays a multitude of different agent platforms exist that aim to support the software engineer in developing multi-agent systems. Nevertheless, most of these platforms concentrate on specific objectives and therefore cannot address all important aspects of agent technology equally well. A broad distinction in this field can be made between middleware- and reasoning-oriented systems. The first category is mostly concerned with FIPA-related issues like interoperability, security and maintainability whereas the latter one emphasizes rationality and goal-directedness. In this paper the Jadex reasoning engine is presented, which supports cognitive agents by exploiting the BDI model and is realized as adaptable extension for agent middleware such as the widely used JADE platform.
Today various different agent platforms are available providing support for the development of agent applications [21]. As agent orientation is a very broad field covering topics concerning inter alia agent organizations, agent behaviour as well as messaging it becomes obvious that most of these platforms focus on specific objectives and therefore cannot address all important aspects of agent technology equally well. Two important categories of platforms are middleware- and reasoning-oriented systems.
The first category is mostly concerned with FIPA-related issues that address interoperability and various infrastructure topics such as white and yellow page services. Hence agent middleware is an important building block that forms a solid foundation for exploiting agent technology. Most...
