In ASTRA, the primary form of interaction between agents is through the use of an Agent Communication Language (ACL). ASTRA supports direct interaction through FIPA ACL-based message passing. This ACL supports a range of message type which must be must be one of the standard FIPA ACL Performatives:
accept-proposal | agree | cancel | cfp | confirm | disconfirm |
failure | inform | inform-if | inform-ref | not-understood | propogate |
propose | proxy | query-if | query-ref | refuse | reject-proposal |
request | request-when | request-whenever | subscribe |
To get started with understanding agent communication, this lesson will initially focus on request and inform messages.
Sending and Receiving a Message