[DL] Journal of Applied Logic, Special Issue on Logic-Based Agent Verification

[Michael Fisher]

[ Apologies for multiple copies ]


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                      | CALL FOR PAPERS |
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                  LOGIC-BASED AGENT VERIFICATION
             [ http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~michael/LBAV04 ]

            A special issue of the JOURNAL OF APPLIED LOGIC

              *** Submissions due: 15th October 2004 ***


Special Issue editors:
  * Michael Fisher  [Univ. Liverpool, UK]
  * Munindar Singh  [North Carolina State Univ., USA]
  * Diana Spears    [Univ. Wyoming, USA]
  * Mike Wooldridge [Univ. Liverpool, UK]

*** OVERVIEW
    --------
The view of computational components as `agents' is widely used in
contemporary software applications, such as Internet navigation,
information management, autonomous process control, and
e-commerce. The popularity of the agent paradigm stems not only from
its intuitive and appealing nature, capturing the notions of
flexibility and evolving behaviour, but also from the range of
theories, tools and techniques that have been developed over recent
years for agent-based systems.  

However, the increasing use of agents in (business, mission, safety)
critical applications, together with the development of
infrastructures such as the world-wide web and wireless computing is
leading to new problems. Central amongst these is that of the
*trustworthiness* of agent software. Can agents be trusted to
autonomously make decisions in critical areas? In addition, once large
numbers of agents are present, can they work together safely?

Thus, it is important to be able to guarantee predictable behaviour
for agent-based systems if these are to be used in critical
applications. Verification of agent-based behaviour is a complex
problem: the behaviour of individual agents must be verified;
collections of agents must be shown to be able to work together
effectively; and agents that communicate over wider distances and
multiple sites must be shown to retain security properties. Tackling
these problems often requires a large number of diverse techniques,
and many such techniques are based on formal logics, thus providing
the clear semantic basis for the verification tasks.

The aim of this special issue is to bring together high-quality papers
exhibiting leading edge research where a "logic-based" approach is
taken to the verification of agent-based systems. We here take a broad
view of logic, and consider a wide range of logical verification
techniques (incorporating theorem-proving, model checking, algebraic,
abstract machines, etc.).


*** THE JOURNAL
    -----------
The Journal of Applied Logic (Elsevier) publishes papers in areas of
logic which can be applied in other disciplines as well as application
papers in those disciplines, the unifying theme being logics arising
from modelling the human agent.  


*** IMPORTANT DATES
    ---------------
 Submission deadline:  15th October 2004
 Author notification:  15th February 2005
 Revised papers due:   15th April 2005


*** TOPICS OF INTEREST
    ------------------
The topics of interest of this special issue include (but are 
not limited to)

  * verification, modelling and analysis techniques for agent-based
    or multi-agent systems based on:  theorem-proving (including,
    classical, modal, temporal, higher-order, etc); constraint-based
    systems; model-checking; abstract machine modelling; algebraic
    techniques; multi-paradigm approaches; abstraction techniques;
    links to testing. 

  * applications of logic-based agent verification, for example in:
    robotics; autonomous process control; agent-based
    knowledge/information management; WWW search/navigation/discovery;
    e-commerce and B2B applications; critical embedded components;
    telecommunications; security; cooperation, team work and
    negotiation; analysing evolving/adaptive systems


*** SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS
    -------------------------
We invite submission of full (typically, 20-40 pages) high-quality
research papers for this special issue. These should neither have been
previously published in their full form, nor be under review
elsewhere. Submissions consisting of the paper (preferably PDF or
Postscript via email but, alternatively, five hard-copies) including
an abstract in which the role of logic in the particular approach used
is clarified, should be sent to Michael Fisher (address given below) 
to arrive no later than 15th October 2004. Formatting instructions can be
found at the journal's web site.

Queries concerning this special issue should be directed to any of the
guest editors. Up-to-date information will also be available from
http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~michael/LBAV04


*** SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORS
    ---------------------

MICHAEL FISHER
 Department of Computer Science, 
 University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZF, UK
 email: M.Fisher at csc.liv.ac.uk    url:  http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~michael

MUNINDAR SINGH
 Department of Computer Science, 
 North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA
 email: mpsingh at csc.ncsu.edu      url:  http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/faculty/mpsingh

DIANA SPEARS
 Department of Computer Science, 
 University of Wyoming, Laramie, USA
 email:  dspears at cs.uwyo.edu     url:   http://www.cs.uwyo.edu/~dspears

MIKE WOOLDRIDGE
 Department of Computer Science, 
 University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZF, UK
 email:  M.J.Wooldridge at csc.liv.ac.uk  url: http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~mjw

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| Michael Fisher                            M.Fisher at csc.liv.ac.uk  |
| Department of Computer Science           tel: (+44) 151 794 6701  |
| University of Liverpool                  fax: (+44) 151 794 3715  |
| Liverpool L69 7ZF, U.K.        http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~michael  |  
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