The Study And Application Of Agent Communication Language Based On Ontology And XML

The Multi-Agent system (MAS) is a kind of technology to achieve certain system targets or to solve some problems in large scale using the characteristics ofAgent--autonomy, flexibility, inter-operation, etc. In MAS, communication is thebase of cooperation and negotiation among agents. However, different Agent which stands in different platform or holds different knowledge and background always has different message format or different understandings on the concepts and structures in the message content. These directly lead to the confusion in Agent communication. Therefore, the Agents need to share knowledge and unify the message format. Agent communication based on Ontology and XML is a method pointed out regarding the problems above. It can strengthen Agent's semantic understanding on message content and increase the efficiency of communication and cooperation, accordingly enhance the reusability, inter-operation and reliability of the software.First of all, this thesis discussed the origin, development as well as the present research situation of Agent Communication Language at home and abroad, and it also compared and analyzed KQML and FIPA ACL, which are the two kinds of ACL commonly used at present, focally researched the Ontology and XML technology, putted forward Agent Communication based on Ontology and XML. To be able to verify its feasibility and correctness, after analyzing the general flow of diagnosing discoloration of teeth in stomatology, this thesis constructed the Communication Ontology model, and then developed the XML encoder & decoder of FIPA ACL. Finally, a communication frame was designed and developed a prototype system on the JADE platform based on it. The anticipated effect was obtained after testing and analyzing the content and format of messages and performances which are in the processes of Agent communication in the prototype system.