Little-JIL
Little-JIL is a graphical language for defining processes that coordinate
the activities of autonomous agents and their use of resources during
the performance of a task. Little-JIL programs are executable so that
agents can be guided through a process while ensuring that their actions
adhere to the process. Little-JIL programs are also statically analyzable
to ensure that reliability requirements are satisfied for all executions
of the process.
Flexible and adaptive, a Little-JIL process program defines a variety
of ways of accomplishing tasks that can work with varying resource
requirements and varying agent capabilities. Agents may be human or
automated (software or robots, for example). The choice of particular
techniques for a particular context can be made automatically based
on resource availability or left up to intelligent agents. Thus, Little-JIL
process programs need not tightly control the behavior of agents, but
rather guide them through the maze of alternatives and facilitate their
communication and resource sharing.
Semantically rich, the Little-JIL language provides features that
allow proactive control flow as well as the ability to react to error
situations and external events. Pre- and post-requisites are used to
dynamically verify that the process is being applied correctly. Resources
are defined using a rich resource model and are reserved and locked
during the execution of a process. An agenda manager provides communication
with the agents using a graphical user interface for human agents and
an API for automated agents.
Language Features
- Task-centered semantics that support multi-agent coordination
- High-level proactive control constructs allow scheduling and drive
execution forward
- Reactions support event-driven processes
- Powerful exception handling for recovery from failures
- Pre and post-requisites help to detect and manage process deviations
- Resource modelling and management guides and constrains execution
- Information flow represents communication between tasks
- Visual notation facilitates understandibility and conciseness
Selected Publications
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Language Definition
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