Article

Debugging agent behavior in an implemented agent system

Authors:

Dung N. Lam and

K. Suzanne BarberAuthors Info & Claims

ProMAS'04: Proceedings of the Second international conference on Programming Multi-Agent Systems

July 2004

Pages 104 - 125

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-32260-3_6

Published: 20 July 2004 Publication History

Abstract

As agent systems become more sophisticated, there is a growing need for agent-oriented debugging, maintenance, and testing methods and tools. This paper presents the Tracing Method and accompanying Tracer tool to help debug agents by explaining actual agent behavior in the implemented system. The Tracing Method captures dynamic run-time data by logging actual agent behavior, creates modeled interpretations in terms of agent concepts (e.g. beliefs, goals, and intentions), and analyzes those models to gain insight into both the design and the implemented agent behavior. An implementation of the Tracing Method is the Tracer tool, which is demonstrated in a target-monitoring domain. The Tracer tool can help (1) determine if agent design specifications are correctly implemented and guide debugging efforts and (2) discover and examine motivations for agent behaviors such as beliefs, communications, and intentions.

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Cited By

Bakar NSelamat A(2018)Agent systems verificationApplied Intelligence10.1007/s10489-017-1112-z48:5(1251-1274)Online publication date: 1-May-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10489-017-1112-z
Winikoff MLarson KWinikoff MDas SDurfee E(2017)Debugging Agent Programs with Why?Proceedings of the 16th Conference on Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems10.5555/3091125.3091166(251-259)Online publication date: 8-May-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3091125.3091166
Koeman VHindriks KJonker C(2017)Designing a source-level debugger for cognitive agent programsAutonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems10.1007/s10458-016-9346-431:5(941-970)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10458-016-9346-4
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Index Terms

Debugging agent behavior in an implemented agent system
1. Computing methodologies
  1. Artificial intelligence
    1. Distributed artificial intelligence
      1. Intelligent agents
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Software verification and validation
      1. Software defect analysis
        Software testing and debugging

Index terms have been assigned to the content through auto-classification.

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image Guide Proceedings

ProMAS'04: Proceedings of the Second international conference on Programming Multi-Agent Systems

July 2004

249 pages

ISBN:3540245596

Editors:
Rafael H. Bordini
Department of Computer Science, University of Durham, Durham, UK
,
Mehdi Dastani
Department of Computer Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, TB, The Netherlands
,
Jürgen Dix
Department of Computer Science, Clausthal University of Technology, Julius-Albert-Str. 4, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, TB, Germany
,
Amal Fallah Seghrouchni
Department of Computer Science, Laboratoire Informatique de Paris 6, 104 avenue du Président Kennedy, Paris, TB, France

Publisher

Springer-Verlag

Berlin, Heidelberg

Publication History

Published: 20 July 2004

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Cited By

Bakar NSelamat A(2018)Agent systems verificationApplied Intelligence10.1007/s10489-017-1112-z48:5(1251-1274)Online publication date: 1-May-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10489-017-1112-z
Winikoff MLarson KWinikoff MDas SDurfee E(2017)Debugging Agent Programs with Why?Proceedings of the 16th Conference on Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems10.5555/3091125.3091166(251-259)Online publication date: 8-May-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3091125.3091166
Koeman VHindriks KJonker C(2017)Designing a source-level debugger for cognitive agent programsAutonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems10.1007/s10458-016-9346-431:5(941-970)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10458-016-9346-4
Collier RRussell SLillis DBoix EHaller PRicci AVarela C(2015)Exploring AOP from an OOP perspectiveProceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Programming Based on Actors, Agents, and Decentralized Control10.1145/2824815.2824818(25-36)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2824815.2824818
Dehimi NMokhati FBadri M(2015)Testing HMAS-based applicationsEngineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence10.1016/j.engappai.2015.09.01346:PA(232-257)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.engappai.2015.09.013
El Houda Dehimi NShepperd MHall TMyrtveit I(2014)Towards a novel testing approach for holonic agentsProceedings of the 18th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering10.1145/2601248.2613079(1-4)Online publication date: 13-May-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2601248.2613079
Higashino MOsaki SOtagaki STakahashi KKawamura TSugahara KWeippl EIndrawan-Santiago MSteinbauer MKotsis GKhalil I(2013)Debugging Mobile Agent SystemsProceedings of International Conference on Information Integration and Web-based Applications & Services10.1145/2539150.2539261(667-670)Online publication date: 2-Dec-2013
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2539150.2539261
DeLoach SGarcia-Ojeda J(2010)O-MaSE: a customisable approach to designing and building complex, adaptive multi-agent systemsInternational Journal of Agent-Oriented Software Engineering10.1504/IJAOSE.2010.0369844:3(244-280)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1504/IJAOSE.2010.036984
Nguyen CPerini ATonella P(2010)Goal-oriented testing for MASsInternational Journal of Agent-Oriented Software Engineering10.1504/IJAOSE.2010.0298104:1(79-109)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1504/IJAOSE.2010.029810
Nguyen CPerini ABernon CPavón JThangarajah J(2009)Testing in multi-agent systemsProceedings of the 10th international conference on Agent-oriented software engineering10.5555/1965954.1965971(180-190)Online publication date: 11-May-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1965954.1965971
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