agentsch

Agentsch is a domain-specific language and runtime designed for defining and executing autonomous agents within multi-agent systems. It provides a compact syntax for describing agent types, their internal state, perceptual inputs, actuators, goals, and communication patterns. The language supports either rule-based or plan-based control, allowing developers to specify how agents select actions in response to events and changing circumstances. By emphasizing a clear separation between agent logic and environment interaction, Agentsch aims to facilitate portability across different simulation platforms and real-world deployments.

Design and features include a schema-based approach to define agent classes, beliefs or knowledge, goals, and plans, along with a lightweight message-passing model. Agents can operate in synchronous or asynchronous modes, and the runtime typically includes a scheduler or event loop to coordinate actions and handle inter-agent communication. Extensibility is achieved through adapters that connect Agentsch agents to various environments, sensors, and actuators, enabling integration with robotics, simulations, or virtual environments.

Execution models commonly employ a combination of belief-desire-intention concepts and rule-based reasoning, with support for prioritization, planning, and conflict resolution among competing goals. Tooling often includes editors, validators, and simulators to verify agent schemas and run controlled experiments.

Applications span education, research prototyping, and practical implementations of distributed AI in fields such as robotics, game AI, and complex system simulations. Agentsch is related to other agent-oriented programming paradigms and interoperates with standard agent communication protocols where applicable. See also: multi-agent systems, BDI architectures, JADE, FIPA, agent-based modeling.