Incorporating the elements of the mase methodology into agent open

Enterprise-wide, web-based systems can be assisted in their construction by the use of agents and an agent-oriented methodology. As part of an extensive research programme to create such an AO methodology by combining the benefits of method engineering and existing object-oriented frameworks (notably the OPF), we have analysed here contributions to the OPF repository of process components from the MASE agent-oriented methodology, identifying three new Tasks, one additional Technique and two new Work Products

The Specification of Requirements in the MADAE-Pro Software Process

MADAE-Pro is an ontology-driven process for multi-agent domain and application engineering which promotes the construction and reuse of agent-oriented applications families. This article introduces MADAE-Pro, emphasizing the description of its domain analysis and application requirements engineering phases and showing how software artifacts produced from the first are reused in the last one. Illustrating examples are extracted from two case studies we have conducted to evaluate MADAE-Pro. The first case study assesses the Multi-Agent Domain Engineering sub-process of MADAE-Pro through the development of a multi-agent system family of recommender systems supporting alternative (collaborative, content-based and hybrid) filtering techniques. The second one, evaluates the Multi-Agent Application Engineering sub-process of MADAE-Pro through the construction of InfoTrib, a Tax Law recommender system which provides recommendations based on new tax law information items using a content-based filtering technique. ONTOSERS and InfoTrib were modeled using ONTORMAS, a knowledge-based tool for supporting and automating the tasks of MADAEPro

Observatory/data centre partnerships and the VO-centric archive: The JCMT Science Archive experience

We present, as a case study, a description of the partnership between an observatory (JCMT) and a data centre (CADC) that led to the development of the JCMT Science Archive (JSA). The JSA is a successful example of a service designed to use Virtual Observatory (VO) technologies from the start. We describe the motivation, process and lessons learned from this approach.Comment: Accepted for publication in the second Astronomy & Computing Special Issue on the Virtual Observatory; 10 pages, 5 figure

Ontological Engineering and Mapping in Multiagent Systems Development

Multiagent systems have received much attention in recent years due to their advantages in complex, distributed environments. Previous work at the Air Force Institute of Technology has developed a methodology for analyzing, designing, and developing multiagent systems, called Multiagent Systems Engineering (MaSE). MaSE currently does not address the information domain of the system, which is an integral part of designing proper system execution. This research extends the MaSE methodology to include the use of ontologies for information domain specification. The extensions allow the designer to specify information flow by using objects from the ontology as parameters in agent conversations. The developer can then ensure system functionality by verifying that each agent has the information required to accomplish the system goals. To fully describe the system design, the developer must describe the relationships between the system ontology and any agent component ontologies. This research also developed a ranking model to assist the user with creating such mappings, to show the relationships between the objects in the ontologies

A Multi-Agent Approach for Designing Next Generation of Air Traffic Systems

This work was funded by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under grant TEC2011-28626 C01-C02, and by the Government of Madrid under grant S2009/TIC-1485 (CONTEXTS)