Exercise 1: Writing Your First Autonomous Agent!

A partial JADE implementation of the Room Automation Use Case.

Table of Contents

• JADE agents
• Agents' provided services
• Agent-to-agent communication
  • FIPA Subscribe Interaction Protocol
  • FIPA Request Interaction Protocol
  • FIPA Contract Net Interaction Protocol
• Project structure
• How to run the project

JADE agents

The system features a main container where four different agents register in total:

• A Building Environment Agent (ENV) that models the building environment.
• A Room Manager Agent (MNG) that perceives the environment and manages the room conditions.
• A Blinds Controller Agent (BLINDS) that controls the blinds in the room (e.g. it raises the blinds).
• A Lamp Controller Agent (LAMP) that controls the light in the room (e.g. it turns on the light).

Agents' provided services

Service	Provided by (Agent)	Searched by (Agent)	Associated FIPA Interaction Protocol
read-illuminance	ENV	MNG	Subscribe
read-weather	ENV	MNG	Subscribe
set-weather	ENV	BLINDS, LAMP	Request
increase-illuminance	BLINDS, LAMP	MNG	Contract Net

Agent-to-agent communication

FIPA Subscribe Interaction Protocol

• Initiators:
  • Agents: MNG
  • Associated Behaviors: PerceiveEnvironment, HandleIlluminancePercept, HandleWeatherPercept
• Participants:
  • Agents: ENV
  • Associated Behaviors: SubscriptionServer, NotificationServer

FIPA Request Interaction Protocol

• Initiators:
  • Agents: BLINDS, LAMP
  • Associated Behaviors: RequestSetIlluminance
• Participants:
  • Agents: ENV
  • Associated Behaviors: SetIlluminanceServer

FIPA Contract Net Interaction Protocol

• Initiators:
  • Agents: MNG
  • Associated Behaviors: PerformContractNetProtocol
• Participants:
  • Agents: BLINDS, LAMP
  • Associated Behaviors: OfferProposalsServer, SatisfyOffersServer

Project structure

The project is structured as follows:

├── cnp
│   ├── initiators
│   │   └── RoomManagerAgent.java
│   └── participants
│       ├── BlindsControllerAgent.java
│       └── LampControllerAgent.java
├── environment
│   ├── BuildingEnvironmentAgent.java
│   └── BuildingEnvironmentGUI.java
└── common
│   ├── BaseAgent.java
│   ├── CNPInitiator.java
│   └── CNPParticipant.java

How to run the project

Run with Gradle 7.4:

• MacOS and Linux: run the following commands
• Windows: replace ./gradlew with gradlew.bat

To start the main container only with the Room Environment Agent (required for Task 1):

./gradlew runEnv

To start the main container with all the agents in the environment (required for Task 2):

./gradlew runRoomAll