Agent Capabilities: Extending BDI Theory

Abstract

Intentional agent systems are increasingly being used in a wide range of complex applications. Capabilities has recently been introduced into one of these systems as a software en-gineering mechanism to support modularity and reusability while still allowing meta-level reasoning. This paper presents a formalisation of capabilities within the framework of be-liefs, goals and intentions and indicates how capabilities can affect agent reasoning about its intentions. We define a style of agent commitment which we refer to as a self-aware agent which allows an agent to modify its goals and intentions as its capabilities change. We also indicate which aspects of the specification of a BDI interpreter are affected by the introduc-tion of capabilities and give some indications of additional reasoning which could be incorporated into an agent system on the basis of both the theoretical analysis and the existing implementation.