fiParse – A Generic Parser for FIPA-Compliant Agent Communication

M.B. Söllner, S. Kaffille, and G. Wirtz (Germany)

Keywords

Software Agents, Agent Communication, Ontology,FIPA Content Languages, Parser

Abstract

Software Agents communicate by exchanging mes sages formulated in an Agent Communication Lan guage (ACL). In order to facilitate communication and understanding of each other, the domain of discourse of heterogeneous agents should be described in an explicit ontology. Both, the ACL and the ontology definition, are independent from the implementation of agents. Furthermore the content of messages should be for mulated in a standardized content language. So the content of messages and the representations of ontolo gies have to be transformed into a format that can be interpreted by an agent. Today many agents are imple mented using Java technology. This paper presents a generic parser called fiParse that enables developers of Java-based agents to create representations of ontolo gies, namely Java classes and standardized message content that can be interpreted by their agents and is compliant to the standards of the Foundation for In telligent Physical Agents (FIPA). This works with on tologies defined up-front as well as on-the-fly by adding ontologies when agents are already up and running. Thus fiParse facilitates a seamless standardized inte gration between ontology and agent development.

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