The logic of action in the deontic transaction model

To secure the integrity of extended multiagent actions, we subsume them under the transaction abstraction. Traditional transaction processing systems have the four ACID properties, which make for transaction security, but exceptions are often needed in long-lived applications. Our transaction model uses deontic logic, the logic of normative reasoning, and agent communication is via speech acts, which establish obligations. The complexity of modern software makes unintended events (which are non-ideal with respect to the specification) inevitable. Deontic logic lets us handle such non-ideal behavior within a specification. The authors characterize transactions as complex action expressions, some of whose constituent actions give rise to obligations. Next they present their deontic transaction model and sketch a semantics for its deontic statements. Finally, joint actions and plans are introduced.