Computational Logic in Multi-Agent Systems

Multi-Agent Systems are communities of problem-solving entities that can exhibit varying degrees of intelligence. They can perceive and react to their environment, they can have individual or joint goals, for which they can plan and execute actions. Work on such systems integrates many technologies and concepts in artificial intelligence and other areas of computing as well as other disciplines. The agent paradigm has become very popular and widely used in recent years, due to its applicability to a large range of domains, from search engines to educational aids, to electronic commerce and trade, e-procurement, recommendation systems, and ambient intelligence, to cite only some. Computational logic provides a well-defined, general, and rigorous framework for studying syntax, semantics and procedures for various capabilities and functionalities of individual agents, as well as interaction amongst agents in multi-agent systems. It also provides a well-defined and rigorous framework for implementations, envir- ments, tools, and standards, and for linking together specification and verification of properties of individual agents and multi-agent systems.