FOUNDATION FOR INTELLIGENT PHYSICAL AGENTS

 

 

FIPA Confirm Communicative Act Specification

 

Document title

FIPA Confirm Communicative Act Specification

Document number

DC00043B

Document source

FIPA TC C

Document status

Deprecated

Date of this status

2001/08/10

Supersedes

None

Contact

fab@fipa.org

Change history

2000/10/16

Deprecated by FIPA00037

2001/08/10

Line numbering added

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© 2000 Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents - http://www.fipa.org/

Geneva, Switzerland

Notice

Use of the technologies described in this specification may infringe patents, copyrights or other intellectual property rights of FIPA Members and non-members. Nothing in this specification should be construed as granting permission to use any of the technologies described. Anyone planning to make use of technology covered by the intellectual property rights of others should first obtain permission from the holder(s) of the rights. FIPA strongly encourages anyone implementing any part of this specification to determine first whether part(s) sought to be implemented are covered by the intellectual property of others, and, if so, to obtain appropriate licenses or other permission from the holder(s) of such intellectual property prior to implementation. This specification is subject to change without notice. Neither FIPA nor any of its Members accept any responsibility whatsoever for damages or liability, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of this specification.

Foreword

The Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA) is an international organization that is dedicated to promoting the industry of intelligent agents by openly developing specifications supporting interoperability among agents and agent-based applications. This occurs through open collaboration among its member organizations, which are companies and universities that are active in the field of agents. FIPA makes the results of its activities available to all interested parties and intends to contribute its results to the appropriate formal standards bodies.

The members of FIPA are individually and collectively committed to open competition in the development of agent-based applications, services and equipment. Membership in FIPA is open to any corporation and individual firm, partnership, governmental body or international organization without restriction. In particular, members are not bound to implement or use specific agent-based standards, recommendations and FIPA specifications by virtue of their participation in FIPA.

The FIPA specifications are developed through direct involvement of the FIPA membership. The status of a specification can be either Preliminary, Experimental, Standard, Deprecated or Obsolete.More detail about the process of specification may be found in the FIPA Procedures for Technical Work. A complete overview of the FIPA specifications and their current status may be found in the FIPA List of Specifications. A list of terms and abbreviations used in the FIPA specifications may be found in the FIPA Glossary.

FIPA is a non-profit association registered in Geneva, Switzerland. As of January 2000, the 56 members of FIPA represented 17countries worldwide. Further information about FIPA as an organization, membership information, FIPA specifications and upcoming meetings may be found at http://www.fipa.org/.

Contents

1     Scope. 3

2     Confirm.. 3

3     References. 3

1         Scope

This document specifies the Confirm communicative act that is compliant to [FIPA00037] requirements.

 

 

2         Confirm

Summary

The sender informs the receiver that a given proposition is true, where the receiver is known to be uncertain about the proposition.

Content

A proposition.

Description

The sending agent:

 

·       believes that some proposition is true,

 

·       intends that the receiving agent also comes to believe that the proposition is true, and,

 

·       believes that the receiver is uncertain of the truth of the proposition.

The first two properties defined above are straightforward: the sending agent is sincere[1], and has (somehow) generated the intention that the receiver should know the proposition (perhaps it has been asked). The last pre-condition determines when the agent should use confirm versus inform (see [FIPA00046]) versus disconfirm (see [FIPA00044]): confirm is used precisely when the other agent is already known to be uncertain about the proposition (rather than uncertain about the negation of the proposition).

From the receiver's viewpoint, receiving a confirm message entitles it to believe that:

 

·       the sender believes the proposition that is the content of the message, and,

 

·       the sender wishes the receiver to believe that proposition also.

 

Whether or not the receiver does, indeed, change its mental attitude to one of belief in the proposition will be a function of the receiver's trust in the sincerity and reliability of the sender.

Formal Model

<i, confirm( j, f )>
  FP: BifÙ BiUjf
  RE: Bjf

Example

Agent i confirms to agent j that it is, in fact, true that it is snowing today.

 

(confirm

  :sender i

  :receiver j

  :content

     "weather( today, snowing )"
  :language Prolog)

               


3         References

[FIPA00037]      FIPA Communicative Act Library Specification. Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents, 2000. http://www.fipa.org/specs/fipa00037/

[FIPA00044]      FIPA Disconfirm Communicative Act Specification. Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents, 2000. http://www.fipa.org/specs/fipa00044/

[FIPA00046]      FIPA Inform Communicative Act Specification. Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents, 2000. http://www.fipa.org/specs/fipa00046/


[1] Arguably there are situations where an agent might not want to be sincere, for example to protect confidential information. We consider these cases to be beyond the current scope of this specification.