Explores some of the key issues related to agent technology from a formal perspective, following the overwhelming response to the timely FAABS workshops in this interdisciplinary field. All papers have been updated, expanded or represent new research and aim to provide a more in-depth treatment of the topic.





The intended audience is:


1. Researchers & practitioners of formal methods. For the researchers, this book gives an introduction to agent-based systems and an overview of research being undertaken in applying formal methods to agent-based systems.





This book provides formal methods practitioners with an introduction to agent-based systems and gives them an in-depth look into some of the formal methods research being undertaken that is related to agent-based & distributed intelligent systems as well as formal methods tools and approaches being used in this area.





2. Researchers & practitioners of agent-based systems. It provides an introduction to formal methods and examples of research that is being conducted in formal approaches to agent-based systems. It gives examples of how others have applied formal methods to agent-based systems as well as formal method tools and techniques that they can apply to their own systems. It also illustrates why it is non-trivial to perform verification and validation of these types of systems.

Associate editor: Michael Hinchey, James Rash, Walt Truszkowski, Diana F. Gordon-Spears