Extending the JADE Agent Behaviour Model with JBehaviourTrees Framework

Creating modular behaviours in JADE using a traditional method such as the FSM (Finite State Machine) can be a difficult task to achieve. The first issue with FSMs is that they do not allow reusability of logic in different contexts. Secondly, the FSMs do not lend themselves well to concurrency within the execution thread and thus eliminating the possibility for parallel behaviours. Lastly, as the number of states in FSMs becomes increasing large, it becomes difficult to manage them. In this paper we introduce our JBehaviourTrees Framework that extends JADE Behaviours with BTs (Behaviour Trees) model. BTs are built via the composition of basic tasks increasing the possibility for modularity and code reuse. The proposed approach is verified through a case study concerning a FIPA-Request Interaction Protocol.