Modelling and verifying BDI agents with bigraphs

Archibald, B. , Calder, M. , Sevegnani, M. and Xu, M. (2022) Modelling and verifying BDI agents with bigraphs. Science of Computer Programming, 215, 102760. (doi: 10.1016/j.scico.2021.102760)

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Abstract

The Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) architecture is a popular framework for rational agents; existing verification approaches either directly encode simplified (e.g. lacking features like failure recovery) BDI languages into existing verification frameworks (e.g. Promela), or reason about specific BDI language implementations. We take an alternative approach and employ Milner's bigraphs as a modelling framework for a fully featured BDI language, the Conceptual Agent Notation (CAN)—a superset of AgentSpeak featuring declarative goals, concurrency, and failure recovery. We provide an encoding of the syntax and semantics of Can agents, and give a rigorous proof that the encoding is faithful. Verification is based on the use of mainstream software tools including BigraphER, and a small case study verifying several properties of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) illustrates the framework in action. The executable framework is a foundational step that will enable more advanced reasoning such as plan preference, intention priorities and trade-offs, and interactions with an environment under uncertainty.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Calder, Professor Muffy and Xu, Dr Mengwei and Sevegnani, Dr Michele and Archibald, Dr Blair
Creator Roles:
Archibald, B.Visualization, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing
Calder, M.Writing – review and editing
Sevegnani, M.Writing – review and editing
Xu, M.Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – original draft
Authors: Archibald, B., Calder, M., Sevegnani, M., and Xu, M.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
Journal Name:Science of Computer Programming
Publisher:Elsevier
ISSN:0167-6423
ISSN (Online):1872-7964
Published Online:03 December 2021
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2021 Elsevier
First Published:First published in Science of Computer Programming 215:102760
Publisher Policy:Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher

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Project CodeAward NoProject NamePrincipal InvestigatorFunder's NameFunder RefLead Dept
172422Science of Sensor System Software (SSSS)Muffy CalderEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)EP/N007565/1Computing Science