Logic Based Semantics for an Agent Communication Language

Agent communication is one of the key issues in multi-agent systems. Traditional interprocess communication formalisms are usually considered insufficient for this purpose because of their lack of expressiveness; thus, in most proposals for multi-agent architectures, an Agent Communication Language (ACL) is designed to provide for agent communication. However, a universally accepted standard for ACLs is still missing. Agent communication in open societies of heterogeneous agents poses requirements on ACLs semantics (formal syntax and semantics, declarativeness, verifiability, meaningfulness) which a social approach seems to meet best. In this paper we propose a logic-based social approach for ACL semantics. We give a functional abstract model of societies and agents. Then we propose a formalism (deontic constraints) to express interaction protocols and give a social semantics to the behavior of agents, focusing on communicative acts. Finally, we sketch a prototypical implementation of deontic constraints exploiting the Constraint Handling Rules language.