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Model Checking Agent Communication

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Specification and Verification of Multi-agent Systems

Abstract

Model checking is a formal and automatic technique used to verify computational systems (e.g. communication protocols) against given properties. The purpose of this chapter is to describe a model checking algorithm to verify communication protocols used by autonomous agents interacting using dialogue games, which are governed by a set of logical rules. We use a variant of Extended Computation Tree Logic CTL* for specifying these dialogue games and the properties to be checked. This logic, called ACTL*, extends CTL* by allowing formulae to constrain actions as well as states. The verification method uses an on-the-fly efficient algorithm. It is based on translating formulae into a variant of alternating tree automata called Alternating Büchi Tableau Automata (ABTA). We present a tableau-based version of this algorithm and provide the soundness, completeness, termination and complexity results. Two case studies are discussed along with their respective implementations to illustrate the proposed approach. The first one is about an agent-based negotiation protocol and the second one considers a modified version of the NetBill protocol.

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Acknowledgement

We would like to thank the reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions. Jamal Bentahar would like to thank Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC: Project 341422-07), Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la nature et les technologies (FQRNT: Project 2008-NC-119348) and Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC: Project 2007- 111881) for their financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Concordia University, Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering, Montreal, Canada

    J. Bentahar & W. Wan

  2. Department of Computer Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    J.-J. Ch. Meyer

Authors
  1. J. Bentahar
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  2. J.-J. Ch. Meyer
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  3. W. Wan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. Bentahar .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Information & Computing Sciences, Utrecht University, Padualaan 14, Utrecht, 3584 CH, Netherlands

    Mehdi Dastani

  2. Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 4, Delft, 2628 CD, Netherlands

    Koen V. Hindriks

  3. Dept. Information & Computer Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands

    John-Jules Charles Meyer

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Bentahar, J., Meyer, JJ.C., Wan, W. (2010). Model Checking Agent Communication. In: Dastani, M., Hindriks, K., Meyer, JJ. (eds) Specification and Verification of Multi-agent Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6984-2_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6984-2_3

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-6984-2

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