Frameworks for Reasoning about Agent Based Systems

This paper suggests formal frameworks that can be used as the basis for defining, reasoning about, and verifying properties of agent systems. The language, Little-JIL is graphical, yet has precise mathematically defined semantics. It incorporates a wide range of semantics needed to define the subtleties of agent system behaviors. We demonstrate that the semantics of Little-JIL are sufficiently well defined to support the application of static dataflow analysis, enabling the verification of critical properties of the agent systems. This approach is inherently a top-down approach that complements bottom-up approaches to reasoning about system behavior.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2000
• Where: AGENTS
• Authors: Leon J. Osterweil, Lori A. Clarke
• Keywords: Agent Systems, AGENTS 2000, Formal Frameworks, Security Privacy, Semantics