The Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA) is a body for developing and setting
computer software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
standards for heterogeneous and interacting
agents and agent-based systems.
FIPA was founded as a Swiss
not-for-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
organization in 1996 with the ambitious goal of defining a full set of standards for both implementing systems within which agents could execute (agent platforms) and specifying how agents themselves should communicate and interoperate in a standard way.
Within its lifetime the organization's membership included several academic institutions and a large number of companies including
Hewlett Packard
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...
,
IBM,
BT (formerly British Telecom),
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, ...
,
Fujitsu
is a Japanese multinational information and communications technology equipment and services corporation, established in 1935 and headquartered in Tokyo. Fujitsu is the world's sixth-largest IT services provider by annual revenue, and the la ...
and many more. A number of standards were proposed, however, despite several agent platforms adopting the "FIPA standard" for agent communication it never succeeded in gaining the commercial support which was originally envisaged. The Swiss organization was dissolved in 2005 and an
IEEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operati ...
standards committee was set up in its place.
The most widely adopted of the FIPA standards are the Agent Management and
Agent Communication Language (FIPA-ACL) specifications.
The name FIPA is somewhat of a
misnomer
A misnomer is a name that is incorrectly or unsuitably applied. Misnomers often arise because something was named long before its correct nature was known, or because an earlier form of something has been replaced by a later form to which the name ...
as the "physical
agents" with which the body is concerned exist solely in software (and hence have no physical aspect).
Systems using FIPA standards
Gamma Platform Se
FIPA interfaceFetch.AI
*Jade
Jade is a mineral used as jewellery or for ornaments. It is typically green, although may be yellow or white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole gro ...
Jadex Agents
(Java)
Java Intelligent Agent Componentware (JIAC)
(Java)
The SPADE Multiagent and Organizations Platform
(Python)
*JACK Intelligent Agents
JACK Intelligent Agents is a framework in Java for multi-agent system development. JACK Intelligent Agents was built by Agent Oriented Software Pty. Ltd. (AOS) and is a third generation agent platform building on the experiences of the Procedural ...
(Java)
The April Agent Platform (AAP) and Language (April)
(No longer actively developed)
Zeus Agent Building Toolkit
(No longer actively developed)
AgentService
(C#) (last update: 2009)
See also
* Agent Communications Language
External links
FIPA Official web site
References
{{authority control
Information technology organisations based in Switzerland
Multi-agent systems
Standards organisations in Switzerland
1996 establishments in Switzerland