Semantics of declarative goals in agent programming

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the notion of declarative goals as used in agent programming. Declarative goals describe desirable states, and semantics of these goals in an agent programming context can be defined in various ways. This paper defines two semantics for goals, with one based on default logic. The semantics are partly motivated by an analysis of other proposals that have been done in the literature. Further, we establish relations between and properties of these semantics.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  F. Theory of Computation
  F.3 LOGICS AND MEANINGS OF PROGRAMS
      F.3.2 Semantics of Programming Languages

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.1 Formal Definitions and Theory

  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
        I.2.11 Distributed Artificial Intelligence
            Subjects: Languages and structures; Intelligent agents
      I.2.4 Knowledge Representation Formalisms and Methods
          Subjects: Representations (procedural and rule-based)
      I.2.5 Programming Languages and Software

General Terms:
Languages, Theory

Keywords:
agent programming languages, declarative goals, default logic, semantics