Modeling and implementation of software agents decision making

Software agents are knowledgeable, autonomous, situated and interactive software entities. Agents' interactions are of special importance when a group of agents interact with each other to solve a problem that is beyond the capability and knowledge of each individual. Efficiency, performance and overall quality of the multiagent applications depend mainly on how the agents interact with each other effectively. We suggest an agent model by which we can clearly distinguish different agent's interaction scenarios. The model has five attributes: goal, control, interface, identity and knowledge base. Using the model, we analyze and describe possible scenarios; devise the appropriate reasoning and decision making techniques for each scenario; and build a library of reasoning and decision making modules that can be used readily in the design and implementation of multiagent systems.