Modeling and verifying multi-agent behaviors using predicate/transition nets Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • In a multi-agent system, how agents accomplish a goal task is usually specified by multi-agent plans built from basic actions (e.g. operators) of which the agents are capable. A critical problem with such an approach is how can the designer make sure the plans are reliable. To tackle this problem, this paper presents a formal approach for modeling and analyzing multi-agent behaviors using Predicate/Transition (PrT) nets, a high-level formalism of Petri nets. We construct a multi-agent model by representing agent capabilities as transitions. To verify a multi-agent PrT model, we adapt the planning graphs as a compact structure for the reachability analysis. We also demonstrate that, based on the PrT model, whether parallel actions specified in multi-agent plans can be executed in parallel and whether the plans guarantee the achievement of the goal can be verified by analyzing the dependency relations among the transitions. Copyright 2002 ACM.

name of conference

  • Proceedings of the 14th international conference on Software engineering and knowledge engineering

published proceedings

  • Proceedings of the 14th international conference on Software engineering and knowledge engineering

author list (cited authors)

  • Xu, D., Volz, R., Ioerger, T., & Yen, J.

citation count

  • 23

complete list of authors

  • Xu, Dianxiang||Volz, Richard||Ioerger, Thomas||Yen, John

publication date

  • January 2002