Last update: April 16, 1999
PDF-version of the paper added May 10, 2007

A lightweight agent framework

This is the web site for the paper "A lightweight agent framework for multi-agent applications", presented at PAAM99, London, April 20-21, 1999. Authors are: Mikael Kindborg, Johan Åberg, and Nahid Shahmehri, Department of Computer and Information Science, Linköping University, Sweden.

Download the paper as a a PDF-document. Download the paper as a Word document.

Look at the slides used in the presentation.

The material used by the evaluators who participated in the usability study described in the paper is available here. Note that this material contains an older version of the framework and the example programs.

A new version of the framework is available for download as a zip-file. This file contains all the framework classes and source code, and the example programs described below. Note that some source files contain more than one class. You can also browse the source directory directly (same files as in the zip-archive). Currently the datagram implementation is the default. The socket implementation is somewhat shaky.

There are three example programs supplied:

Ping Application

Start server with: java PingServer
Start client with: java PingClient <hostname>
For instance: java PingClient localhost

Chat Application

Start server with: java ChatServer
Start client with: java ChatClient <nickname> <hostname>
For instance: java ChatClient Micke localhost

You will have to start two clients to be able to chat. For testing purposes it works fine to start two processes at the same machine.

Social Agent Application

Start server with: java EmotionalServer
Start client with: java EmotionalClient <you> <yourloved> <hostname>
For instance:
java EmotionalClient Lana Peter localhost
java EmotionalClient Peter Lana localhost

Note that the user names "Lana" and "Peter" are hard-coded into the server. You can add more agents by editing and recompiling EmotionalServer.java. Also note that when you start the second client application it will display on top of the first one. Move windows so that you can see both of them. This application is intended for future Java-powered jewellery, for instance a Java ring with a tiny display. See the paper for further information about this application.

If you would like to have a copy of the paper, or wish further information, please contact Mikael Kindborg at this address: mikki@ida.liu.se