Agent interoperation across multiagent system boundaries

Abstract

Recently the number of autonomous agents and multiagent systems (MAS) that have been developed by different developers has increased. Despite efforts for the creation of standards (eg. in communication languages, registration protocols etc.), it is clear that at least in the near term heterogeneous agents and MASs will be prevalent. Therefore, mechanisms that allow agents and/or MASs to interoperate and transact are needed. In this paper we report on a case study and lessons learned of an interoperator agent we developed. We discuss requirements for interoperation mechanisms, resulting challenges and our design decisions and implementation of the RETSINA-OAA InterOperator 1.