Processing interaction protocols in parallel: a logic programming implementation for robotic soccer

Abstract

In this paper we explore different situations in which collaborative agents have to communicate among themselves using standard interaction protocols. We will propose how to process these interactions in parallel without interfering with other agent's activities. Thus, agents will not have to interrupt or delay an activity for handling incoming messages, and in some cases, answers can be created and delivered immediately. Our proposal will be oriented to a robotic soccer domain with autonomous mobile robots. We will analyze three kinds of situations in which the interaction between agents plays an important role for coordination: requirements, queries and proposals. Requirements arise when an agent asks another to execute a specific action. A query is used when an agent wants to acquire certain information from another agent. Finally, proposals arise when an agent wants to synchronize with another agent for collaboration. In a realistic scenario, an agent may interact with several agents and these interactions usually proceed simultaneously with the rest of the activities of the agent. Therefore, our proposal is to process these in- teractions in parallel with the decision cycle of the agent reducing the overhead imposed by the interaction. The implementation of this approach will be done in an extended logic programming framework developed for implementing multi-agent systems.