A Generic Mapping Approach for the Integration of BDI with Object Orientation

The BDI model is one of the most successful approaches for programming internal agent behavior. The derived PRS architecture beneficially combines reactiveness with deliberative reasoning via reactive planning and has been used for implementing diverse real world applications. Two different strands of programming languages following the BDI metaphor have emerged. The first strand comprises logical languages like Agent Speak(L) and the second one is based on extensions of object oriented mainstream languages. Regarding the second strand it can be observed that the integration of BDI with mainstream languages has been often pursued in a way that allows for programming BDI agents in the host language by scarifying parts of the normal object oriented (OO) concepts such as inheritance and polymorphism. In this article first the general relationship between object oriented and BDI concepts is analyzed in a language independent way and a novel approach fostering a flexible mapping of BDI to OO concepts is presented. Afterwards, the mapping is used to realize a concrete programming approach for BDI agents in standard Java. For this purpose normal OO elements like fields, methods and classes can be turned into BDI elements such as beliefs, goals and plans of a BDI agent class.