Actors and agents as reflective concurrent objects: a MERING IV perspective

Author

Ferber, Jacques ; Carle, Patrice

Author_Institution

Laforia, Paris Univ., France

Volume

21

Issue

6

fYear

1991

Firstpage

1420

Lastpage

1436

Abstract

A reflective actor language that is used as a development tool for implementing distributed artificial intelligence systems is described. The MERING IV language is bound on the actor model of computation, which allows for autonomy and concurrency. MERING IV is a reflective language, i.e., a language that can represent itself, both structurally and operationally. MERING IV implements a model of reflection called compilation-based reflection. Reflection in MERING IV is used as a glueing mechanism that permits agents of various sizes and intelligences to communicate in a uniform manner. An example of the use of reflection for describing transparent protocols between agents is given

Keywords

artificial intelligence; concurrency control; distributed processing; formal languages; MERING IV language; autonomy; compilation-based reflection; concurrency; development tool; distributed artificial intelligence systems; formal languages; glueing mechanism; reflective actor language; transparent protocols; Artificial intelligence; Computational modeling; Concurrent computing; Message passing; Multiagent systems; Object oriented modeling; Object oriented programming; Parallel processing; Protocols; Reflection;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Systems, Man and Cybernetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9472

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/21.135686

Filename

135686