FOUNDATION FOR INTELLIGENT PHYSICAL AGENTS

FIPA Refuse Communicative Act Specification

Document title	FIPA Refuse Communicative Act Specification
Document number	DC00055A	Document source	FIPA TC C
Document status	Deprecated	Date of this status	2000/10/16
Supersedes	None
Contact	fab@fipa.org
Change history
2000/10/16	Deprecated by FIPA00037

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

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Contents

1 Scope. 1

2 Refuse. 2

3 References. 3

1 Scope

This document specifies the Refuse communicative act which is compliant to [FIPA00037] requirements.

2 Refuse

Summary	The action of refusing to perform a given action, and explaining the reason for the refusal.
Content	A tuple, consisting of an action expression and a proposition giving the reason for the refusal.
Description	The refuse act is an abbreviation for denying (strictly speaking, disconfirming - see [FIPA00044]) that an act is possible for the agent to perform, and stating the reason why that is so. The refuse act is performed when the agent cannot meet all of the preconditions for the action to be carried out, both implicit and explicit. For example, the agent may not know something it is being asked for, or another agent requested an action for which it has insufficient privilege. The agent receiving a refuse act is entitled to believe that: · the action has not been done, · the action is not feasible (from the point of view of the sender of the refusal), and, · the (causal) reason for the refusal is represented by the a proposition which is the third term of the tuple, (which may be the constant true). There is no guarantee that the reason is represented in a way that the receiving agent will understand: it could be a textual error message. However, a co-operative agent will attempt to explain the refusal constructively.
Formal Model	<i, refuse(j, <i, act>, f)> º <i, disconfirm(j, Feasible(<i, act>))>; <i, inform(j, f Ù ØDone(<i, act>) Ù ØI_i Done(<i, act>))> FP : B_i ØFeasible(<i, act>) Ù B_i (B_j Feasible(<i, act>) Ú U_j Feasible(<i, act>)) Ù B_i a Ù ØB_i (Bif_j a Ú Uif_j a) RE : B_j ØFeasible(<i, act>) Ù B_j a Where: a = f Ù ØDone(<i, act>) Ù ØI_i Done(<i, act>) Agent i informs j that action act is not feasible, and further that, because of proposition f, act has not been done and i has no intention to do act.
Example	Agent j refuses to i reserve a ticket for i, since i there are insufficient funds in i's account. (refuse :sender j :receiver i :content ((action j (reserve-ticket LHR MUC 27-sept-97)) (insufficient-funds ac12345)) :language FIPA-SL)

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/