Towards a Distributed Plan Execution Monitoring Framework.

Abstract: Distributed monitoring is challenging yet essential in order to address scalability issues observed in the context of large-scale plan execution. A formal framework can be very helpful in analyzing and reasoning about plan spec- ification, execution, and monitoring. In this paper, we elaborate on a distributed monitoring calculus framework that allows specifying and executing plans for multi-agent systems in a distributed environment. The framework allows taking into account a highly dynamic and uncertain environment that can be a contributor to the changing conditions possibly disrupting and causing the plan to fail. Furthermore, the calculus provides sound foundations for designing and evaluating monitoring algorithms and protocols. In order to achieve effective monitoring, we propose an automata- based approach, inspired by runtime security verification research initiatives. The proposed automata allow enforcing monitoring properties while the given plan is executed at the agent's side. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]