Java Agent Development Framework

Java Agent DEvelopment Framework, or JADE, is a software framework for multi-agent systems, in Java that has been in development since at least 2001.^[1] The JADE platform allows the coordination of multiple FIPA-compliant agents and the use of the standard FIPA-ACL communication language in both SL and XML.

Overview

Jade creates multiple containers for agents, each of which can be on the same computing system or different systems. Together, a set of containers forms a platform.

Each platform must have a Main Container which holds two specialized agents called the AMS agent and the DF agent.^[2]

• The AMS (Agent Management System) agent is the authority in the platform. It is the only agent that can create and kill other agents, kill containers, and shut down the platform.
• The DF (Directory Facilitator) agent implements a yellow pages service which advertises the services of agents in the platform so other agents requiring those services can find them.

Extensions

Jade has been extended by Wade (Workflows and Agents Development Environment). Wade implements a workflow system for representing and developing agent processes with a visual editor called WOLF.

Eclipse Support

In addition to its other features, Wade also provides a plug-in for integrating Wade (and, by inclusion, Jade) into the Eclipse IDE. Another plug-in that integrates Jade into Eclipse is eJade.

References

See also

• Autonomous agent
• Cognitive architecture
• Agent communication language
• JACK Intelligent Agents

External links

• Jade homepage
• Wade homepage