Agent Standardization

and the OMG

AgentLink III Meeting

TF3 CASA - Coordinating Agent Standardisation Activities

15 September 2005

James Odellwww.jamesodell.com

Agent Standardization and the OMG© James Odell, 2005 Page 2

• Open-membership, not-for-profit consortium

• Produces and maintains computer industry specifications for interoperable enterprise applications

• Membership includes virtually every large company in the computer industry, and hundreds of smaller ones. (550 members—and growing)

• Most of the companies that shape enterprise and Internet computing today are represented on the OMG’s Board of Directors

• Any company may join OMG and participate in our standards-setting process.

• Produces and distributes only specifications – not software. (All specifications may be downloaded, free of charge.)

• Encourage rapid commercial adoption of the technologies it publishes.

WHAT IS THE OMG?

Agent Standardization and the OMG© James Odell, 2005 Page 3

Analysis and DesignAgents Business Enterprise IntegrationConsultation, Command, Control,

Communications and Intelligence (C4I)eGovernment FinanceGene ExpressionGeospatial and Imagery Value-Added ServicesHealthcare Information and Security AssuranceIT Portfolio ManagementJapanKorea

JUST SOME OF THE OMG SUB-GROUPS

Life Sciences ResearchManufacturing Technology and Industrial SystemsMiddleware and Related ServicesModel Integrated ComputingOntology Product Lifecycle Management ServicesReal-time, Embedded, and Specialized SystemsSoftware-Based CommunicationsSpaceSuper Distributed ObjectsSystems EngineeringTelecommunicationsTransportationXML Telemetric and Command Data Exchange

Agent Standardization and the OMG© James Odell, 2005 Page 4

WHAT IS THE OMG PRIMARILY KNOWN FOR?

Agent Standardization and the OMG© James Odell, 2005 Page 5

Mission Statement

• To identify and recommend new specifications in the area of agent technology.

• To promote agent standards that increase rigor and consistency of specifications.

• To recommend agent-related extensions to existing and emerging specifications

• To enable developers to better understand how to develop agent-based applications, including large-scale distributed agent systems.

• To leverage and interoperate with other specifications in the agent area, where appropriate.

• To liaise with related organizations that share goals toward agent technology.

Current activity

1) Extending UML 2.0 Superstructure to represent agents and agent-based systems.

2) Extending UML 2.0 Infrastructure to provide an infrastructure for agents.

WHAT IS THE AGENT SIG?

Agent Standardization and the OMG© James Odell, 2005 Page 6

Agentis (James Odell)Altarum (Van Parunak)Boeing (Jaymes Wilks)CTA (Computer Technology Associates) (Brent Langley)DHL (David Norton)DoCoMo (Anthony Tarlano)IAI (Intelligent Automation, Inc.) (Renato Levy)Infosys Technologies Ltd. (NS Nagaraj)John Deere & Co (Roger Burkhart)MagicDraw (No Magic) (Gary Duncanson)NIST (Shaw Feng)SAIC (Telcordia) (Marian Nodine, David Fado)Telcordia (Marian Nodine)Unisys (Mila Polonskaya, Sumeet Malhorta)University of Bologna (Paolo Ciancarini)

INVOLVED IN THE AGENT SIG?

In-principle support from UML 2.0

tool vendors:

NoMagic (MagicDraw)

SparxSystems (Enterprise Architect)

GentleWare (Poseidon)

Agent Standardization and the OMG© James Odell, 2005 Page 7

Responses from: FIPA Agentis Software, University of Augsburg Agentis, Intelligent Automation, Telcordia Technologies RMIT University Whitestein Technologies PUC-Rio The Distributed Group -- University of Seville Calico Jack's Ltd.

MODELING AGENT-BASED SYSTEM MODELING RFI

OMG Request for Information (RFI)

• Issued - 27 August 2004

• Deadline - 10 January 2005

Agent Standardization and the OMG© James Odell, 2005 Page 8

• Robotics SIGhttp://robotics.omg.org

• Super Distributed Objects SIG

• Real-time, Embedded, and Specialized Systems TFhttp://realtime.omg.org

• Ontology Definition Metamodel (Ontology SIG, http://ontology.omg.org)

• Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (Business Enterprise Integration TF, http://bei.omg.org/ )

RELATED TO AGENT STANDARDS IN THE OMG

Agent Standardization and the OMG© James Odell, 2005 Page 9

IEEE FIPA, however, is where most of the

current agent standards activity is occurring.

OMG vs IEEE FIPA

Agent Standardization

and the OMG

AgentLink III Meeting

TF3 CASA - Coordinating Agent Standardisation Activities

15 September 2005

James Odellwww.jamesodell.com