AT2AI-7

Seventh International Symposium "From Agent Theory to Agent Implementation"

April 6-7, 2010, Vienna, Austria (EU)

Chairs: Jörg Müller and Paolo Petta

<URL: http://www.ofai.at/research/agents/conf/at2ai7/>
<Email: at2ai7@ofai.at>

at the
20th European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research (EMCSR 2010)
<URL:http://www.osgk.ac.at/emcsr/>

	Petta P. (ed.): "From Agent Theory to Agent Implementation 6" — A selection of contributions, IJAOSE, 4(2), 2010.
	Applied Artificial Intelligence, 24 (in press), 2010.   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.

top↑  Latest News

2010-02-22

• Symposium schedule has been published.

2010-01-27

• All review results have been disseminated --- our sincere apologies for the delay!
• The list of accepted papers has been published.

2010-01-10

• Dates for dissemination of notifications and final paper submissions have been updated
• Early registration deadline published (see entry "Online Registration" on the EMCSR 2010 website)

2009-11-15

• Errata Corrige with the members of the Programme Committee

2009-11-05

• Confirmed members of the Programme Committee published

2009-10-05

• AT2AI-7 web site online

top↑  Introduction

Since its first edition in 1998, the symposium series "From Agent Theory to Agent Implementation" has been not only documenting the progress in agent-related technologies, but also managed to contribute to the rapid development of this area. AT2AI actively promotes the exchange of ideas and experiences between researchers and practitioners working on the whole range of theoretical and application-oriented issues of agent technology. It covers both the micro and macro aspects of agent-oriented design, and discusses the relations of drawing boards and partly idealised models to modelling tools and frameworks to deployment, management and maintenance of implementations. The focus of AT2AI lies in the discussion of direct experience reports from all stakeholders, so as to remain well aware of the actual target domains while using the language of current agent terminology.

Previous AT2AI editions produced a first blueprint of a layered ecology of technologies for the development of agent based applications (cf. the editorial: Engineering Agent Systems: Best of "From Agent Theory to Agent Implementation (AT2AI-3)" in Applied Artificial Intelligence 16(9-10):671-67, 2003 — available as OFAI TR-2002-41 from http://www.ofai.at/tr-online/). 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 Artificial Intelligence 20(2-4), 2006.

As with the most recent editions of the symposium, AT2AI-7 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. Also, results from research on "heavier" cognitive agent architectures are being increasingly evaluated and considered for deployment in information agent settings.

top↑  Topics of Interest

Of particular relevance to the workshop are reflections that share insights about experiences and lessons learnt when applying specific agent theories or architectures to application problems, or, from the recipients' end, when contracting agent technologies to provide a service envisioned. Such discussions and critiques may be aimed at conceptual vocabulary, methods, methodologies, good and bad management practices, and other tools and activities: anything that may be of value for system designers to improve the mapping of their agent-oriented toolbox to application needs, and for other stakeholders to better understand the available potential and current challenges of agent-oriented systems.

Topics of interest 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-)realtime characteristics
• Sophisticated cognitive capabilities of practical value
• Social issues in agent societies
• Safety, security, and responsibility
• Granularities of system design (single-agent, multi-agent, ant, ...)
• Comparison of paradigms: Agents vs. P2P 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

Submissions are encouraged to cast the presentation in terms of the blueprint schema described above, or to propose principled changes to it. As the previous editions of AT2AI have shown, this is a significant aid for the workshop audience to grasp more readily the significance of the work presented and to relate it to their own activities: the quality and variety of feedback provided to authors improves accordingly, often leading to persisting fruitful contacts.

top↑  Important Dates

Paper submission deadline:	November	30,	2009
Notifications of acceptance/rejection:	January	24 27,	2010
Early registration deadline:	February	4,	2010
Camera-ready copies due:	February	5,	2010
Symposium date:	April	6-7,	2010

top↑  Symposium Schedule:

top↑  Organisation

Co-Chairs

Programme Committee

top↑  Related EMCSR'010 Symposium

• ABModSim: Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation

top↑  Further Information

top↑  Previous Editions

EMCSR 2010

Paolo.Petta@ofai.at Last modified: Fri Mar 25 13:18:30 CET 2010