ELMS: An environment description language for multi-agent simulation

This paper presents ELMS, a language used for the specification of multi-agent environments. This language is part of the MAS-SOC approach to the design and implementation of multi-agent based simulations. The approach is based on specific agent technologies for cognitive agent programming and high-level agent communication, as well as ELMS. We here concentrate on introducing ELMS, which allows the description of environments in which agents are to be situated during simulations. The ELMS language also allows the definition of the agents' perceptible properties and the kinds of (physical) interactions, through action and perception, an agent can have with the objects of the environment or the perceptible representations of the other agents in the environment.