Debugging Agents in Agent Factory

摘要

The ability to effectively debug agent-oriented applications is vital if agent technologies are to become adopted as a viable alternative for complex systems development. Recent advances in the area have fo cussed on the provision of support for debugging agent interaction where tools have been provided that allow developers to analyse and debug the messages that are passed between agents.One potential approach for constructing agent-oriented applications is through the use of agent programming languages. Such languages employ mental notions such as beliefs, goals, commitments, and intentions to facilitate the construction of agent programs that specify the high-level behaviour of the agent. This paper describes how debugging has been supported for one such language, namely the Agent Factory Agent Programming Language (AFAPL).