Principles of Compositional Multi-agent System Development

A dedicated development method for multi-agent systems requires adequate means to describe the characteristics of agents and multi-agent systems. Compositional multi-agent system development is based on the principles process and knowledge abstraction, compositionality, reuse, specification and verification. Although the paper addreses these principles of compositional multi-agent system development from a generic perspective, some of the examples used to illustrate the notions discussed are taken from the compositional development method DESIRE

Compositional Design and Verification of a Multi-Agent System for One-to-Many Negotiation

A compositional verification method for multi-agent systems is presented and applied to a multi-agent system for one-to-many negotiation in the domain of load balancing of electricity use. Advantages of the method are that the complexity of the verification process is managed by compositionality, and that parts of the proofs can be reused in relation to reuse of components

Principles of Component-Based Design of Intelligent Agents

Compositional multi-agent system design is a methodological perspective on multiagent system design based on the software engineering principles process and knowledge abstraction, compositionality, reuse, specification and verification. This pape

Automated Analysis of Compositional Multi-Agent Systems

Abstract. An approach for handling the complex dynamics of a multi-agent system is based on distinguishing aggregation levels. The behaviour at a given aggregation level is specified by a set of dynamic properties at that level, expressed in some (temporal) language. Such behavioural specifications may be complex and difficult to analyse. To enable automated analysis of system specifications, a simpler format is required. To this end, a specification at a lower aggregation level can be created, describing basic steps in the processes of a system. This paper presents a method and tool to support the automated creation of such a specification, as a refinement of a given higher level specification. The generated specification has a simple format which can easily be used for analysis. This paper describes an approach for automated verification of logical consequences of specifications using model checking techniques

Compositional verification of a distributed real-time arbitration protocol

A distributed real-time arbitration protocol is specified and verified using an assertional method. The formalism is based on classical Hoare triples which have been extended to deal with real-time properties. To verify design steps, a compositional proof system has been formulated for these extended triples. The intention of the protocol is to resolve contention between a number of concurrent modules that compete to acquire control of a common bus. Therefore our proof method has been adapted to deal with concurrent processes that communicate by means of a common bus. Compositionality makes it possible to verify the required properties of the protocol using only the specifications of the modules. Next we give a top-down derivation of a program implementing a module according to its real-time specification