Caste-centric agent-oriented programming

The paper presents a caste-centric approach to agent-oriented programming by introducing SLABSp language. The fundamental concepts of caste-centric methodology, caste and scenario, as well as environment descriptions, are available as language facilities in SLABSp in a coherent way. In SLABSp programming, agents are organized into castes to represent their structure and behavior characteristics, and their behaviors are defined by scenarios and rules in the context of their environment. The relations between agents and castes are bound at runtime, and the perceptions and interactions between agents are supported with scenarios and behavior rules. Two selected SLABSp programs are demonstrated to illustrate the programming style.