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.
Leon J. Osterweil, Lori A. Clarke