A Formal Model for Artifact-Based Environments in MAS Programming

In this paper we provide a formalisation of the computational and programming model behind CArtAgO, a platform/infrastructure for programming and executing artifact-based computational environments in MAS. Such environments are realised as set of workspaces where agents work together by instantiating, sharing, co-using artifacts, i.e. first-class entities of the agent world representing resources and tools that agents can exploit so as to support their individual and collective activities. Besides rigorously describing the main features of the artifact abstraction and related interaction model concerning agent use and observation of artifacts, the formalisation aims at fostering the integration of CArtAgO with existing (intelligent) agent programming languages, in particular with those with a well-defined formal model and semantics.