A Review of Platforms for the Development of Agent Systems

Agent-based computing is an active field of research with the goal of building autonomous software of hardware entities. This task is often facilitated by the use of dedicated, specialized frameworks. For almost thirty years, many such agent platforms have been developed. Meanwhile, some of them have been abandoned, others continue their development and new platforms are released. This paper presents a up-to-date review of the existing agent platforms and also a historical perspective of this domain. It aims to serve as a reference point for people interested in developing agent systems. This work details the main characteristics of the included agent platforms, together with links to specific projects where they have been used. It distinguishes between the active platforms and those no longer under development or with unclear status. It also classifies the agent platforms as general purpose ones, free or commercial, and specialized ones, which can be used for particular types of applications.Comment: 40 pages, 2 figures, 9 tables, 83 reference

Dynamic Monitoring in PANGEA Platform Using Event-Tracing Mechanisms

The use of distributed multi-agent systems (MAS) have increased in recent years, with the growing potential to handle large volumes of data and coordinate the operations of many organizations. In these systems, each agent independently handles a set of specialized tasks and cooperates to achieve the goals of the system and a high degree of flexibility. Multi-agent systems have become the most effective and widely used form of developing this type of application in which communication among various devices must be both reliable and efficient. One of the problems related to distribute computing is message passing, which is related to the interaction and coordination among intelligent agents. Consequently, a multi-agent architecture must necessarily provide a robust communication platform and control mechanisms. This paper presents the integration of an event-tracing model in an agent platform called PANGEA. Adding this new capability, the platform allows improving the monitoring and analysis of the information that agents can send/receive in order to fulfil their goals more efficiently

Design and implementation of a software agent platform applied in E-learning and course management

Text in English; Abstract: English and TurkishIncludes bibliographical references (leaves 86-89)xi, 115 leavesIn this thesis, we report an experience on constructing a software agent platform for development and implementation of software agent systems running with integrated e-learning and course management applications which are developed and running under different technologies. The proposed platform consists of an agent development framework namely JADE (Java Agent Development Environmet), a common database infrastructure serving to many different applications and the applications infrastructure running on different platforms. An example e-university application module which is an integrated course management software running on the proposed platform namely Course ON-LINE and an agent application running as an add-on utility to this application namely GAIA is explained in detail to demonstrate the use of the proposed application.Bu çalışmada farklı teknolojiler kullanılarak geliştirilen ve farklı platformlarda çalıştırılmakta olan ve tümleşik yapıdaki uzaktan eğtim ve ders yönetimi araçları uygulamalarla birlikte çalışabilecek yazılım etmen sistemlerinin geliştirilebilmesini sağlayan bir yazılım geliştirme ve çalıştırma ortamı inşa etme deneyimi aktarılmıştır. Önerilen ortam JADE (Java Agent Development Environmet), isimli bir etmen geliştirme aracı, etmen sistemleri dahil tüm uygulamaların ortak kullandıkları bir veritabanı altyapısı, ve farklı ortamlarda çalışan ve farklı teknolojilerle geliştirilmiş uygulamaların altyapısından oluşmaktadır. Önerilen ortamın kullanılışını göstermek için tümleşik ders web sayfaları yönetim aracı olan ve e-üniversite uygulamalarının bir parçası olan Course ON-LINE ve onunla birlikte çalışan bir yazılım etmeni uygulaması olan GAIA uygulamaları detaylıca sunulmuştur

Multiagent-Based Model For ESCM

Web based applications for Supply Chain Management (SCM) are now a necessity for every company in order to meet the increasing customer demands, to face the global competition and to make profit. Multiagent-based approach is appropriate for eSCM because it shows many of the characteristics a SCM system should have. For this reason, we have proposed a multiagent-based eSCM model which configures a virtual SC, automates the SC activities: selling, purchasing, manufacturing, planning, inventory, etc. This model will allow a better coordination of the supply chain network and will increase the effectiveness of Web and intel-ligent technologies employed in eSCM software