AT2AI-6

Sixth International Workshop "From Agent Theory to Agent Implementation"

May 13, 2008, Estoril, Portugal (EU)

Chairs: Bernhard Jung, Fabien Michel, Alessandro Ricci and Paolo Petta
at2ai6 (aT( ofai.at
<URL: http://www.ofai.at/research/agents/conf/at2ai6/>

Held at the
Seventh International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems
(AAMAS 2008)

<URL:http://gaips.inesc-id.pt/aamas2008/>

 

Petta P., Müller J.P. (ed.): Best of "From Agent Theory to Agent Implementation 4", Applied Artificial Intelligence, 20(2-4), 2006.   Petta P., Müller J.P. (ed.): Best of "From Agent Theory to Agent Implementation 3", Applied Artificial Intelligence, 16(9-10), 2002.   Petta P., Müller J. (ed.): From Agent Theory to Agent Implementation: Best of AT2AI-1, Applied Artificial Intelligence, 14(7), 2000.

"From Agent Theory to Agent Implementation" (AT2AI) is a forum to present and discuss experiences and innovative ideas that help to strengthen the connection and dialogue between theory and practice of agent-oriented systems.
AT2AI builds upon the success of previous editions that promoted the exchange of ideas and experiences, needs and opportunities between researchers, practitioners and further stakeholders working on and with the whole range of theoretical and application-oriented aspects of agent technology. Of particular relevance to the workshop are reflections that share insights and lessons learnt when applying specific agent theories or technologies to application problems, or, from the recipients' end, when contracting agent technologies to provide a service envisioned. The workshop will critique methods, methodologies, and other tools meant to help system designers to perceive the full range of options offered by the agent-oriented approach and to accomplish the mapping between available agent technology and application needs. Other stakeholders should be rewarded with a better understanding of the current potential of and challenges for agent-oriented systems.

Latest Newstop↑

May 5, 2008:

• Workshop implementation notes and workshop schedule are available online

Mar. 13, 2008:

• The final papers are available for download.

Mar. 4, 2008:

• Formatting instructions for final papers published, due apologies for the delay!
  Please note that the deadline for final papers is March 7, 2008.

Feb. 26, 2008:

• List of accepted papers grouped by themes published

Feb. 25, 2008:

• Notifications sent (20 accepted contributions out of 35), accepted papers grouped by themes and first proposals of questions/issues to be published shortly.
• Formatting instructions for final papers to be published shortly, too (due apologies!).

Feb. 4, 2008:

• 35 papers received, reviewing in progress

Jan. 29, 2008:

• Invited speaker: Giovanni Rimassa (Whitestein Technologies) confirmed

Jan. 23, 2008:

• Paper submission deadline extended to Feb. 1, 2008.

Introduction and Backgroundtop↑

Previous AT2AI editions produced a first blueprint of a layered ecology of technologies for the development of agent based applications (see AT2AI-3 and the editorial: "Engineering Agent Systems: Best of ``From Agent Theory to Agent Implementation (AT2AI-3)'' " of Applied Artificial Intelligence 16(9-10):671-676, 2002). This perspective considers middleware, tools, off-the shelf platforms, integrated development environments (IDEs), and the like, with respect to their practical value to improve the application performance delivered. The qualities of these support technologies can in turn be improved and better exploited with the design of architectural frameworks and the deployment of standards. The evolution of these in turn can be assisted by the development of sound theoretical foundations and related formal methods. Methodologies are considered as working know-that and know-how, capturing and maintaining the best practises how to identify, align, and process application- and environment-derived (bottom-up) and support technology related (top-down) requirements and options.

m ---------------------------------------------------+
  e                                                  |
|   t                 theoretical foundations        |
|     h                                              |
|       o -----------------------------------------+ |
|         d                                        | |
|       |   o               standards              | |
|       |     l                                    | |
|       |       o -------------------------------+ | |
|       |         g                              | | |
|       |       |   i       middleware           | | |
|       |       |     e                          | | |
|       |       |       s ---------------+       | | |
|       |       |                        |       | | |
|       |       |  IDEs |  APPLICATIONS  | tools | | |
|       |       |       |                |       | | |
|       |       |       +----------------+       | | |
|       |       |    off-the-shelf platforms     | | |
|       |       +--------------------------------+ | |
|       |                   architectures          | |
|       +------------------------------------------+ |
|                        formal methods              |
+----------------------------------------------------+

AT2AI also compiled an updated inventory against the maturing agent field: the status of logic-based approaches was addressed in particular; but evidence was also provided for how routine consideration of a multitude of perspectives is finally starting to meet the requirements posed by serious application needs (including e.g. issues of privacy and flexible access right management). These results have been published in the triple issue of Applied AI 20(2-4), 2006.

AT2AI-6 is aimed at pushing the envelope further still, as more substantial experiences with more sizeable and persisting systems deployed become available. In addition to the understanding of what approaches and aspects can contribute in which ways to system resilience, sustainability, and other properties of practical importance, further reflection is now starting to identify inherent dynamical properties that are particular to agent-oriented systems and that may enable to expand the range of application support significantly. This for example includes consideration of the pros and cons of functional and physical approaches to encapsulation, and accepting and devising solutions to cope with limited control over the environment and system coherence at the macro level.

This workshop has strong links to two other AAMAS workshops: Agent Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) and Programming Multi-Agent Systems (ProMAS). These workshops will coordinate their activities, including the organisation of a joint session. Details will be published on the AT2AI-6 web site in due course.

Topics of Interesttop↑

Topics of interest therefore include, but are not limited to:

• Conceptual and theoretical foundations
• Agent languages and architectures
• The nature and relation of the micro and macro levels
• Learning and adaptability
• Communication, coordination and collaboration within MAS
• Monitoring and regulation of MAS behaviour
• Reactivity, pro-activeness, autonomy at the macro level
• Use and adaptation of Meta-Models at run-time
• Solutions for (soft-)real-time characteristics
• Social issues in agent societies
• Safety, security, and responsibility
• Granularities of system design (single-agent, multi-agent, ant, ...)
• Agents vs. Middleware vs. Grids vs. Web Services
• Development, engineering, and management methodologies
• User interfaces and usability
• MAS Information interfaces (handling of discrete and continuous information)
• Testbeds and evaluations
• Applications of agent technology in routine use
• Bio-inspired theories/techniques for MAS implementations
• Patterns for implementing agents

Important Datestop↑

Paper submission deadline:	January	25,	2008
!!! extended deadline !!!	February	1,	2008
Notifications of acceptance/rejection:	February	25,	2008
Camera-ready copies:	March	7,	2008
Workshop date:	May	13,	2008

Workshop Working Notestop↑

Accepted papers are provided to participants of the workshop as working notes.
Available for download are the informal workshop working notes as well as individual papers (in the Workshop Schedule, below).

Selected contributions of previous editions AT2AI were published in the journal Applied Artificial Intelligence.
For the 2008 edition, we again plan to compile a special issue out of revised and extended versions of selected papers arising out of the workshop discussions. It is to appear with e.g. Applied AI or Multi-agent and Grid Systems (MAGS).

Workshop Implementationtop↑

• Do keep an eye on this web page for any last-minute updates!
• Each participant should study the workshop notes before the event.
• Please be at the workshop location on time, before workshop start (08:50!) and
  at the beginning of the individual sessions.
• Authors: We will necessarily have to be very strict with the timing.
  Please prepare your presentation accordingly, and do comply with the following guidelines:
  • At the very beginning of your presentation, please point out the position of your work and the focus of your talk on the agent technologies diagram given in the section "Introduction&Background".
  • Focus on exposing the original motivation and research question pursued and explaining the current status of the results, and their relevance for others: Who should be particularly interested in your efforts, and why? What important relations do you see to the other papers in your session?
  • Address the questions specified for your session. We also encourage further explicit cross-connections to other papers presented at AT2AI-6 (but also elsewhere at AAMAS 2008).
  • Do not see your contribution limited to the timeslot of your presentation: please identify session topics and other papers particularly related to your own work, and think of items you would like to have addressed in the discussion slots.

Scheduletop↑

Organisationtop↑

Workshop Chairs

Programme Committee

We are also grateful to the following additional reviewers:
Nejla Amara, Yudistira Asnar, Volha Bryl, Ludivine Crepin, Fabiano Dalpiaz, and Marc-Philippe Huget.

Other Editionstop↑

• For information on previous editions of AT2AI, see: AT2AI-5, AT2AI-4, AT2AI-3, AT2AI-2, AT2AI-1
• For information on following editions of AT2AI, see: AT2AI-7