Cougaar is a Java-based architecture for the construction of large-scale distributed multi-agent systems. Cougaar is the product of multi-year DARPA research projects ALP [1] and Ultra*Log. [2]
Cougaar is open source and includes not only the core runtime framework, but also a variety of demonstration, visualization, and management components to simplify the development of complex, distributed applications.
Cougaar is an abbreviation, of sorts, for "Cognitive Agent Architecture".