Alessandro Ricci

AAMAS Conference 2026 Conference Paper

A Multi-level Explainability Framework for Engineering and Understanding BDI Agents

• Elena Yan
• Samuele Burattini
• Jomi F. Hübner
• Alessandro Ricci

As the complexity of software systems rises, the ability to provide explanations of system behavior has become a desirable property for any Artificial Intelligence based system, including autonomous multi-agent systems. While explainability is mainly explored to increase trust and understanding for end-users, it is also an interesting property from a software engineering perspective, supporting developers and designers in the debugging and validation phases. To address the different needs and expertise of these roles, we propose a framework that generates explanations at multiple levels of abstraction, enabling both the engineering and the understanding of BDI agents.

JAAMAS Journal 2025 Journal Article

A multi-level explainability framework for engineering and understanding BDI agents

• Elena Yan
• Samuele Burattini
• Alessandro Ricci

Abstract As the complexity of software systems rises, explainability - i. e. the ability of systems to provide explanations of their behaviour - becomes a crucial property. This is true for any AI-based systems, including autonomous systems that exhibit decisionmaking capabilities such as multi-agent systems. Although explainabil- ity is generally considered useful to increase the level of trust for end-users, we argue it is also an interesting property for software engineers, developers, and designers to debug and validate the system’s behaviour. In this paper, we propose a multi-level explainability framework for BDI agents to generate explanations of a running system from logs at different levels of abstraction, tailored to different users and their needs. We describe the mapping from logs to explanations, and present a prototype tool based on the JaCaMo platform which implements the framework.

ECAI Conference 2025 Conference Paper

Exploiting GenAI for Plan Generation in BDI Agents

• Giovanni Ciatto
• Gianluca Aguzzi
• Riccardo Battistini
• Martina Baiardi
• Samuele Burattini
• Alessandro Ricci

Extending BDI agents with the ability to autonomously generate plans has long been a goal in the field of cognitive agent engineering to enhance their adaptability. Recent advances in GenAI are now opening new possibilities for plan generation, by leveraging the natural-language understanding, mean-end reasoning, and abstraction capabilities of LLMs. In this paper, we investigate the integration of GenAI-based plan generation into AgentSpeak(L) agents, and we analyse the implications of transferring knowledge between the LLM and the BDI agent, for the sake of dynamic plan generation. We propose a coherent framework where AgentSpeak(L) is extended with plan generation, and we model the boundaries of the generative process. We prototype our framework via the JaKtA BDI agent technology, and we methodologically assess the quality of the plans generated by LLMs of different sorts.

EUMAS Conference 2025 Conference Paper

Extending CArtAgO to support the engineering of complex distributed environments at the Knowledge Level

• Alessandro Ricci
• Andrei Ciortea
• Samuele Burattini

AAMAS Conference 2024 Conference Paper

Concurrency Model of BDI Programming Frameworks: Why Should We Control It?

• Martina Baiardi
• Samuele Burattini
• Giovanni Ciatto
• Danilo Pianini
• Andrea Omicini
• Alessandro Ricci

We provide a taxonomy of concurrency models for BDI frameworks, elicited by analysing state-of-the-art technologies, and aimed at helping both BDI designers and developers in making informed decisions. Comparison among BDI technologies w. r. t. concurrency models reveals heterogeneous support, and low customisability.

AAMAS Conference 2024 Conference Paper

The Cognitive Hourglass: Agent Abstractions in the Large Models Era

• Alessandro Ricci
• Stefano Mariani
• Franco Zambonelli
• Samuele Burattini
• Cristiano Castelfranchi

Recent advances in AI are driving an unprecedented and fastpaced development of myriads of powerful agent tools and applications, mostly based on generative AI technologies such as Large Language/Multi-modal/Agent Models. However, despite many proposals in that direction, the lack of a sound set of usable engineering abstractions hinders the possibility of methodically engineering complex agent-based applications, also due to the gap between cognitive agent-based concepts and LLMs’ behavioural patterns. We argue that such a set of abstractions should constitute the narrow neck of an indispensable “cognitive hourglass”: a level of abstraction that is meant to be useful for humans to understand/design/control agents and MAS, regardless of the specific AI technologies adopted at the implementation level and of the specific application context. Here, we elaborate on the idea of the cognitive hourglass, motivate its need, sketch its envisioned architecture, and identify the research challenges for its realisation.

EUMAS Conference 2024 Conference Paper

Towards Agents' Embodiment in Hypermedia Multi-agent Systems

• Matteo Castellucci
• Samuele Burattini
• Andrei Ciortea
• Jérémy Lemée
• Danai Vachtsevanou
• Alessandro Ricci
• Simon Mayer

Abstract Situatedness and embodiment are central features of autonomous agents, initially inspired by agents operating in physical environments. In this paper, we discuss the benefits of situated and embodied agents in digital environments. More specifically, we study the embodiment of agents in Web-based Multi-Agent Systems (MAS). Such MAS are inherently open and distributed, as they inherit these properties from the Web, and increasingly dynamic, as they can easily extend to physical environments through the Web of Things. We propose a conceptualization of agent bodies in such Web environments and discuss their properties. We illustrate our approach through a demonstration scenario implemented using the Yggdrasil framework for Hypermedia MAS, a subset of Web-based MAS that follows a hypermedia-based design rationale.

AAMAS Conference 2022 Conference Paper

"Go to the Children": Rethinking Intelligent Agent Design and Programming in a Developmental Learning Perspective

• Alessandro Ricci

In this paper we propose to rethink the development of intelligent agents based on cognitive architectures as a developmental learning process, inspired by theories of learning in children and cognitive development. The idea is targeted to explore architectures, methods and tools to systematically develop intelligent agents capable of integrating both practical knowledge and skills designed by developers and knowledge and skills acquired by interacting in properly designed learning environments.

AAMAS Conference 2021 Conference Paper

Agent Programming in the Cognitive Era

• Rafael H. Bordini
• Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni
• Koen Hindriks
• Brian Logan
• Alessandro Ricci

It is claimed that, in the nascent ‘Cognitive Era’, intelligent systems will be trained using machine learning techniques rather than programmed by software developers [10]. A contrary point of view argues that machine learning has limitations, and, taken in isolation, cannot form the basis of autonomous systems capable of intelligent behaviour in complex environments [14]. In this paper, we argue that the unique strengths of Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) agent programming languages provide an ideal framework for integrating the wide range of AI capabilities necessary for progress towards the next-generation of intelligent systems.

AAMAS Conference 2021 Conference Paper

Programming Agent-based Mobile Apps: The JaCa-Android Framework

• Angelo Croatti
• Alessandro Ricci

A relevant application domain for agent-based software is given by smart mobile applications. In this context, the impressive progress of technologies makes it possible to explore the use of agent-oriented programming languages and frameworks based on cognitive architectures. Accordingly, here we provide a description of JaCa- Android, a framework based on the JaCaMo platform that allows for designing and programming smart mobile apps using BDI-based cognitive agents within the A&A conceptual model.

JAAMAS Journal 2020 Journal Article

Agent programming in the cognitive era

• Rafael H. Bordini
• Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni
• Alessandro Ricci

Abstract It is claimed that, in the nascent ‘Cognitive Era’, intelligent systems will be trained using machine learning techniques rather than programmed by software developers. A contrary point of view argues that machine learning has limitations, and, taken in isolation, cannot form the basis of autonomous systems capable of intelligent behaviour in complex environments. In this paper, we explore the contributions that agent-oriented programming can make to the development of future intelligent systems. We briefly review the state of the art in agent programming, focussing particularly on BDI-based agent programming languages, and discuss previous work on integrating AI techniques (including machine learning) in agent-oriented programming. We argue that the unique strengths of BDI agent languages provide an ideal framework for integrating the wide range of AI capabilities necessary for progress towards the next-generation of intelligent systems. We identify a range of possible approaches to integrating AI into a BDI agent architecture. Some of these approaches, e. g. , ‘AI as a service’, exploit immediate synergies between rapidly maturing AI techniques and agent programming, while others, e. g. , ‘AI embedded into agents’ raise more fundamental research questions, and we sketch a programme of research directed towards identifying the most appropriate ways of integrating AI capabilities into agent programs.

EUMAS Conference 2020 Conference Paper

From Virtual Worlds to Mirror Worlds: A Model and Platform for Building Agent-Based eXtended Realities

• Angelo Croatti
• Alessandro Ricci

Abstract Extended Reality (XR) refers to applications that blend the digital and the physical worlds in different ways: both by situating virtual worlds into physical environments by means of Augmented and Mixed Reality Technologies, and by exploiting smart things and devices in the physical environment connected to the Virtual World, in a pervasive computing perspective. Like in the case of Virtual Worlds and Intelligent Virtual Environments, XR applications are a relevant application domain for multi-agent systems and AI—for instance, for designing XR-based smart environments. The research question addressed by this paper is about the definition of a model for conceiving and designing agent-based XR applications, effective enough to capture essential aspects in spite of the specific implementing technologies. To this purpose, the paper describes a model based on the Mirror World conceptual framework and a concrete platform used to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses.

JAAMAS Journal 2020 Journal Article

Mobile Apps as Personal Assistant Agents: the JaCa-Android Framework for programming Agents-based applications on mobile devices

• Angelo Croatti
• Alessandro Ricci

Abstract A relevant application domain for agent-based software is given by mobile and wearable applications. In this context, the impressive progress of technologies in the last decade makes it possible to explore the use of agent-oriented programming languages and frameworks based on cognitive architectures, such as the Belief–Desire–Intention (BDI) one. Accordingly, in this paper we provide a comprehensive description of the JaCa-Android approach, a framework based on the JaCaMo platform that allows for designing and programming smart mobile apps using cognitive agents based on the BDI architecture and the Agents & Artifacts environment conceptual model. In these years, the framework has been applied in real-world projects and application domains, and extended and evolved accordingly. The aim of the paper is to report our experience about designing and programming mobile apps as personal assistant agents, as well as to discuss in detail the architecture of the framework.

AAMAS Conference 2019 Conference Paper

A Decade in Hindsight: The Missing Bridge Between Multi-Agent Systems and the World Wide Web

• Andrei Ciortea
• Simon Mayer
• Fabien Gandon
• Olivier Boissier
• Alessandro Ricci
• Antoine Zimmermann

The World Wide Web has evolved drastically over the past decade – and the proliferation of Web APIs has turned it into the middleware of choice for most distributed systems. The recent focus on hypermedia-driven APIs together with initiatives such as the Web of Things and Linked Data are now promoting and advancing the development of a new generation of dynamic, open, and long-lived systems on the Web. These systems require agent-based solutions to the point that Web researchers have started to build autonomous systems on their own. It is thus both timely and necessary to investigate and align the latest developments in Web research and multi-agent systems (MAS) research. In this paper, we analyze in hindsight the factors that hindered the widespread acceptance of early Web-based MAS. We argue that the answer lies equally in a lack of practical use cases as well as the premature development and alignment of Web and agent technologies. We then present our vision for a new generation of autonomous systems on the Web, which we call hypermedia MAS, together with the research opportunities and challenges they bring.

AIIM Journal 2019 Journal Article

BDI personal medical assistant agents: The case of trauma tracking and alerting

• Angelo Croatti
• Sara Montagna
• Alessandro Ricci
• Emiliano Gamberini
• Vittorio Albarello
• Vanni Agnoletti

Personal assistant agents can have an important role in healthcare as a smart technology to support physicians in their daily work, helping to tackle the increasing complexity of their task environment. In this paper we present and discuss a personal medical assistant agent technology for trauma documentation and management, based on the Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) architecture. The purpose of the personal assistant agent is twofold: to assist the Trauma Team in doing precision tracking during a trauma resuscitation, so as to (automatically) produce an accurate documentation of the trauma, and to generate alerts at real-time, to be eventually displayed either on smart-glasses or room-display.

KER Journal 2019 Journal Article

Dimensions in programming multi-agent systems

• Olivier Boissier
• Rafael H. Bordini
• Jomi F. Hübner
• Alessandro Ricci

Abstract Research on Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) has led to the development of several models, languages, and technologies for programming not only agents, but also their interaction, the application environment where they are situated, as well as the organization in which they participate. Research on those topics moved from agent-oriented programming towards multi-agent-oriented programming (MAOP). A MAS program is then designed and developed using a structured set of concepts and associated first-class design and programming abstractions that go beyond the concepts normally associated with agents. They include those related to environment, interaction, and organization. JaCaMo is a platform for MAOP built on top of three seamlessly integrated dimensions (i.e. structured sets of concepts and associated execution platforms): for programming belief desire intention (BDI) agents, their artefact-based environments, and their normative organizations. The key purpose of our work on JaCaMo is to support programmers in exploring the synergy between these dimensions, providing a comprehensive programming model, as well as a corresponding platform for developing and running MAS. This paper provides a practical overview of MAOP using JaCaMo. We show how emphasizing one particular dimension leads to different solutions to the same problem, and discuss the issues of each of those solutions.

AAMAS Conference 2019 Conference Paper

Engineering Scalable Distributed Environments and Organizations for MAS

• Alessandro Ricci
• Andrei Ciortea
• Simon Mayer
• Olivier Boissier
• Rafael H. Bordini
• Jomi Fred Hubner

In MAS programming and engineering, the environment and the organisation can be exploited as first-class design and programming abstractions besides the agent one. A main example of a platform implementing this view is JaCaMo, which allows the programming of a MAS in terms of an organisation of cognitive agents sharing a common artifact-based environment. However, MAS models and platforms in general do not provide a satisfactory approach for MAS developers to uniformly deal with distribution at multiple dimensions — agent, environment, and organisation. Typically, environments are either centralised in a single node, or composed by parts that run on different nodes but with a poor support at the programming and execution levels to deal with that. In this paper, we tackle this problem by proposing a model for engineering world-wide distributed environments and organisations for MAS. The approach integrates the A&A (Agents and Artifacts) conceptual model with a web/resource-oriented view of distributed systems as proposed by the REST architectural style. To evaluate the approach, an extension of the JaCaMo open-source platform has been developed implementing the proposed model.

AAMAS Conference 2019 Conference Paper

ViTALiSE: Virtual to Augmented Loop in Smart Environments

• Stefano Mariani
• Angelo Croatti
• Alessandro Ricci
• Andrea Prati
• Giuseppe Vizzari

Future workplaces will be smart environments providing human users with features and functionalities augmenting their capabilities while lowering their cognitive/physical efforts. ViTALiSE is a vision of future smart environments integrating Human-Agent Collectives (HAC) with Digital Twins (DTs) fostering the synergistic interplay between the physical and digital reality.

AAMAS Conference 2018 Conference Paper

AgentSpeak(ER): An Extension of AgentSpeak(L) improving Encapsulation and Reasoning about Goals

• Alessandro Ricci
• Rafael Hector Bordini
• Jomi F. H�bner
• Rem Collier

In this paper we introduce AgentSpeak(ER), an extension of the AgentSpeak(L) language tailored to support encapsulation. The AgentSpeak(ER) extension aims at improving the style of BDI agent programming along relevant aspects, including program modularity and readability, failure handling, and reactive as well as goal-based reasoning.

EUMAS Conference 2015 Conference Paper

A Concurrent Architecture for Agent Reasoning Cycle Execution in Jason

• Maicon Rafael Zatelli
• Alessandro Ricci
• Jomi Fred Hübner

Abstract Reactiveness and performance are important features of Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) and the underlying execution platform has a direct impact on them. These features can be improved by properly exploiting the parallelism provided by multi-core architectures and related parallel hardware. In this paper, we take Jason as a reference for BDI agents and analyze its execution platform according to its concurrency features. Our aim is to modify the Jason reasoning cycle to introduce a concurrent architecture for individual agents. We experimentally evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of the new Jason reasoning cycle.

JAAMAS Journal 2010 Journal Article

Environment programming in multi-agent systems: an artifact-based perspective

• Alessandro Ricci
• Michele Piunti
• Mirko Viroli

Abstract This article introduces the notion of environment programming in software multi-agent systems (MAS) and describes a concrete computational and programming model based on the artifact abstraction and implemented by the CArtAgO framework. Environment programming accounts for conceiving the computational environment where agents are situated as a first-class abstraction for programming MAS, namely a part of the system that can be designed and programmed—aside to agents—to encapsulate functionalities that will be exploited by agents at runtime. From a programming and software engineering perspective, this is meant to improve the modularity, extensibility and reusability of the MAS as a software system. By adopting the A&A meta-model, we consider environments populated by a dynamic set of computational entities called artifacts, collected in workspaces. From the agent viewpoint, artifacts are first-class entities of their environment, representing resources and tools that they can dynamically instantiate, share and use to support individual and collective activities. From the MAS programmer viewpoint, artifacts are a first-class abstraction to shape and program functional environments that agents will exploit at runtime, including functionalities that concern agent interaction, coordination, organisation, and the interaction with the external environment. The article includes a description of the main concepts concerning artifact-based environments and related CArtAgO technology, as well as an overview of their application in MAS programming.

JAAMAS Journal 2009 Journal Article

Instrumenting multi-agent organisations with organisational artifacts and agents

• Jomi F. Hübner
• Olivier Boissier
• Alessandro Ricci

Abstract The social and organisational aspects of agency have led to a good amount of theoretical work in terms of formal models and theories. However, the conception and engineering of proper organisational infrastructures embodying such models and theories are still an open issue. The introduction of normative concerns with requirements of openness and adaptation stresses this issue. The corresponding mechanisms for the current infrastructures appear to be not appropriate for managing distributed and open normative organisations. There is still the need of proper abstractions and tools to facilitate application agents taking part in the monitoring of the organisation on one hand, and in the adaptation and definition of the organisation in which they are situated on the other hand. In this paper we present and discuss ORA4MAS (Organisational Artifacts for Multi-Agent Systems), a proposed approach aiming at these issues. Based on the Agents and Artifacts meta-model ( A&A ), it introduces organisational artifacts as first class entities to instrument the organisation for supporting agents activities within it.

JAAMAS Journal 2008 Journal Article

Artifacts in the A&A meta-model for multi-agent systems

• Andrea Omicini
• Alessandro Ricci
• Mirko Viroli

Abstract In this article we focus on the notion of artifact for agents in multi-agent systems (MAS) as a basis for a new meta-model promoting the modelling and engineering of agent societies and MAS environment as first-class entities. Its conceptual foundations lay upon theories and results coming from computational sciences as well as from organisational and cognitive sciences, psychology, computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), anthropology and ethology. In the resulting agents & artifacts (A&A) meta-model, agents are the (pro-)active entities in charge of the goals/tasks that altogether build up the whole MAS behaviour, whereas artifacts are the reactive entities providing the services and functions that make individual agents work together in a MAS, and that shape agent environment according to the MAS needs. After presenting the scientific background, we define the notions of artifact in the A&A meta-model, discuss how it affects the notion of intelligence in MAS, and show its application to a number of agent-related research fields.

AAMAS Conference 2008 Conference Paper

Integrating Artifact-Based Environments with Heterogeneous Agent Programming Platforms

• Alessandro Ricci
• Michele Piunti
• Lemi Daghan Acay
• Rafael Bordini
• Jomi H
• uuml; bner
• Mehdi Dastani

“Agents and Artifacts” (A&A) and CARTAGO are becoming increasingly popular as, respectively, a general-purpose programming model and a related infrastructure for developing shared computational environments in agent-based software systems. However, so far there has been no work on developing multiagent systems (MAS) where agents implemented and deployed in different agent-programming platforms can interact as part of the same MAS with a shared environment. Due to the generality of CARTAGO environments and its Java-based implementation, we have successfully implemented an open multi-agent system where heterogeneous agents developed with different platforms—namely Jason, 2APL as BDI-based approaches and simpA as an activityoriented approach rather than BDI-based—work together in shared workspaces where they interact and cooperate by dynamically creating and using shared artifacts, analogously to human working environments. This paper shows how this was achieved by first presenting a general model for incorporating a theory of use and observation of artifacts in cognitive agents, then describing a general approach for developing such heterogeneous MAS using CARTAGO integrated with existing agent-oriented programming platforms.

AAMAS Conference 2007 Conference Paper

"Give Agents their Artifacts": The A&A Approach for Engineering Working Environments in MAS

• Alessandro Ricci
• Mirko Viroli
• Andrea Omicini

In human society, almost any cooperative working context accounts for different kinds of object, tool, artifacts in general, that humans adopt, share and intelligently exploit so as to support their working activities, in particular social ones. According to theories in human sciences—Activity Theory and Distributed Cognition are two main examples [5, 4]—and to related disciplines in computer science—such as Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)—such entities have a key role in determining the success or failure of the activities, playing an essential function in simplifying complex tasks and—more generally—in designing solutions that scale with activity complexity. Such a perspective can be found also in some works in the context of Distributed Artificial Intelligence [1, 2].

KER Journal 2006 Journal Article

Operating instructions for intelligent agent coordination

• Mirko Viroli
• Alessandro Ricci
• Andrea Omicini

In contrast to standard approaches based on agent communication languages (ACLs), environment-based coordination is emerging as an interesting alternative for structuring interactions in multiagent systems (MASs). In particular, the notion of coordination artifacts has been proposed as an engineering methodology to build runtime abstractions effectively providing collaborating agents with specifically designed coordination tasks. In this paper, we study the semantics for the interaction of agents with coordination artifacts playing the same role of ACL semantics, that is, supporting semantic interoperability between agents developed by different parties through the connection between rationality and interaction. Our approach is rooted on the notion of operating instructions of coordination artifacts, which—as with a manual for a human exploiting a device—describe the interaction protocols the agent can follow as well as the mentalistic semantics of each single interaction. By tackling some of the most relevant issues raised in the context of ACL semantics, our framework allows intelligent, BDI-like agents to carry on complex interactions through coordination artifacts in a rational way.

AAMAS Conference 2005 Conference Paper

An Organisation Infrastructure for Multi-Agent Systems based on Agent Coordination Contexts

• Mirko Viroli
• Alessandro Ricci
• Andrea Omicini

EUMAS Conference 2005 Conference Paper

Cognitive Stigmergy: A Framework Based on Agents and Artifacts

• Alessandro Ricci
• Andrea Omicini
• Mirko Viroli
• Luca Gardelli
• Enrico Oliva

KER Journal 2005 Journal Article

Environments in multiagent systems

• Danny Weyns
• Michael Schumacher
• Alessandro Ricci
• Mirko Viroli
• Tom Holvoet

There is a growing awareness in the multiagent systems research community that the environment plays a prominent role in multiagent systems. Originating from research on behavior-based agent systems and situated multiagent systems, the importance of the environment is now gradually being accepted in the multiagent system community in general. In this paper, we put forward the environment as a first-order abstraction in multiagent systems. This position is motivated by the fact that several aspects of multiagent systems that conceptually do not belong to agents themselves should not be assigned to, or hosted inside the agents. Examples are infrastructure for communication, the topology of a spatial domain or support for the action model. These and other aspects should be considered explicitly. The environment is the natural candidate to encapsulate these aspects. We elaborate on environment engineering, and we illustrate how the environment plays a central role in a real-world multiagent system application.

AAMAS Conference 2004 Conference Paper

Coordination Artifacts: Environment-based Coordination for Autonomous Agents

• Andrea Omicini
• Alessandro Ricci
• Mirko Viroli
• Cristiano Castelfranchi
• Luca Tummolini

AAMAS Conference 2004 Conference Paper

Instructions-Based Semantics of Agent Mediated Interaction

• Mirko Viroli
• Alessandro Ricci