From Agents to Artifacts Back and Forth: Purposive and Doxastic use of Artifacts in MAS

Abstract

Recent approaches in Multi-Agent Systems are focusing on 
providing models and methodologies for the design of environments and 
special purpose tools supposed to scale up complexities. Among others, the Agents and Artifacts (A&A) approach introduced the notion af 
artifact as first class abstraction providing agents with external facilities, services and coordination medium explicitely conceived for easing 
their activities. In this paper we analyse A&A systems by focusing on the 
functional roles played by artifacts. In particular, we here investigate the 
function of artifacts once they are employed in the context of societies of 
cognitve agents, i.e. agents capable to reason about their epistemic and 
motivational states. In this context, a twofold kind of interactions is envisaged. On the one side, artifact rapresentational function allows agent 
to improve epistemic states, i.e., by representing and sharing strategic 
knowledge in the overall system (doxastic use ). On the other side, artifacts operational function allows agents to improve the repertoire of 
actions, i.e., by providing additional means which can be purposively 
triggered by agents to achieve goals (operational use ). Some of the outcomes of this approach are discussed along with test cases showing agents 
engaged in goal-oriented activities relying on the transmission of relevant 
knowledge and the operations provided by artifacts.