Towards Agent-Based Simulation Support for Training Teachers

he quality of teacher training is crucial as it influences the academic performance of students. The last decades have witnessed a steep increase in the use of information applications for improving the training of teachers. In this line of work, the current approach proposes to use agent-based simulation for supporting the training of teachers. The current work focuses on the capability of teachers in designing appropriate teaching strategies with the corresponding schedules of learning activities. In particular, the current approach uses FTS-SOCI (an agent-based Framework for simulating Teaching Strategies with evolutions of Sociograms) for simulating the social repercussions of certain teaching strategies. Teachers can pursue obtaining groups with high cohesion, which is normally related with a high academic performance. This article illustrates the current approach with the training of a computer science teacher for the programming subject

A model-driven approach for constructing ambient assisted-living multi-agent systems customized for Parkinson patients

The Parkinson disease affects some people, especially in the last years of their lives. Ambient assisted living systems can support them, especially in the middle stages of the disease. However, these systems usually need to be customized for each Parkinson patient. In this context, the current work follows the model-driven engineering principles to achieve this customized development. It represents each patient with a model. This is transformed into an agent-based model, from which a skeleton of programming code is generated. A case study illustrates this approach. Moreover, 24 engineers expert in model-driven engineering, multi-agent systems and/or health experienced the current approach alongside the three most similar works, by implementing actual systems. Some of these systems were tested by Parkinson patients. The results showed that (1) the current approach reduced the development time, (2) the developed system satisfied a higher percentage of the requirements established for certain Parkinson patients, (3) the usability increased, (4) the performance of the systems improved taking response time into account, and (5) the developers considered that the underlying metamodel is more appropriate for the current goal

Requirements Modeling for Multi-Agent Systems

Different approaches for building modern software systems in complex and open environments have been proposed in the last few years. Some efforts try to take advantage of the agent-oriented paradigm to model/engineer complex information systems in terms of independent agents. These agents may collaborate in a computational organization (Multi-Agent Systems, MAS) by playing some specific roles having to interact with others in order to reach a global or individual goal. In addition, due to the complex nature of this type of systems, dealing with the classical functional and structural perspectives of software systems are not enough. The organizational perspective, that describes the context where these agents need to collaborate, and the social behavior perspective, that describes the different "intelligent" manners in which these agents can collaborate, need to be identified and properly specified. Several methodologies have been proposed to drive the development of MAS (e.g., Ingenias, Gaia, Tropos) although most of them mainly focus on the design and implementation phases and do not provide adequate mechanisms for capturing, defining, and specifying software requirements. Poor requirements engineering is recognized as the root of most errors in current software development projects, and as a means for improving the quality of current practices in the development of MAS, the main objective of this work is to propose a requirements modeling process to deal with software requirements covering the functional, structural, organizational, and social behavior perspectives of MAS. The requirements modeling proposed is developed within the model-driven engineering context defining the corresponding metamodel and its graphical syntax. In addition, a MAS requirements modeling process is specified using the Object Management Group's (OMG) Software Process Engineering Metamodel (SPEM). Finally, in order to illustrate the feasibility of our approach, we specified the software requirements of a strategic board game (the Diplomacy game).Rodríguez Viruel, ML. (2011). Requirements Modeling for Multi-Agent Systems. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/11416Archivo delegad

Implementation of a Port-graph Model for Finance

In this paper we examine the process involved in the design and implementation of a port-graph model to be used for the analysis of an agent-based rational negligence model. Rational negligence describes the phenomenon that occurred during the financial crisis of 2008 whereby investors chose to trade asset-backed securities without performing independent evaluations of the underlying assets. This has contributed to motivating the search for more effective and transparent tools in the modelling of the capital markets. This paper shall contain the details of a proposal for the use of a visual declarative language, based on strategic port-graph rewriting, as a visual modelling tool to analyse an asset-backed securitisation market.Comment: In Proceedings TERMGRAPH 2018, arXiv:1902.0151

Un marco para la definición y transformación de modelos en los sistemas multiagentes

El Desarrollo del Software Dirigido por Modelos (DSDM) es un paradigma de desarrollo en el que los modelos son el producto principal, y a partir de ellos se generan los sistemas de forma automática, total o parcialmente. Del tratamiento de los modelos, surge la necesidad de denirlos y transformarlos, que se aborda respectivamente con la denición de metamodelos y transformaciones. Uno de los principales beneciarios del DSDM es la Ingeniería del Software Orientada a Agentes (ISOA). En ésta, se construyen Sistemas Multi-agente (SMAs), que son sistemas distribuidos compuestos por agentes autónomos que interactúan dando lugar a comportamientos complejos. Si bien algunas caracter ísticas del DSDM se han incorporado plenamente en la ISOA como prácticas habituales, todavía dos factores dicultan su implantación completa. En primer lugar, la denición de metamodelos depende de la experiencia del diseñador y no existen guías que faciliten esta labor. Por otro lado, las herramientas y lenguajes existentes no permiten denir transformaciones de modelos con un esfuerzo razonable. Por ello, esta tesis propone una guía para denir metamodelos y un procedimiento para generar Transformaciones. La guía incluye un armazón para estructurar los metamodelos, recomendaciones para las decisiones principales, y una secuencia de pasos para denir los metamodelos. El armazón se estructura en tres capas que contienen respectivamente la información del lenguaje de modelado, los aspectos de presentación de los modelos y la información especíca de las herramientas. En la capa del lenguaje de modelado, se proponen ciertas representaciones de los elementos y se dan las pautas para asociar cada elemento con la representación más apropiada. Para esto se debe elegir entre una representación heterogénea, que minimiza el número de elementos de meta-modelado necesarios para representar los elementos del modelo, o una representación homogénea, con más elementos de meta-modelado pero más fácil de procesar automáticamente. También se debe elegir entre una representación redundante o no redundante de las referencias entre los elementos, dependiendo del nivel de navegabilidad que se desee, ya que dichas referencias son dirigidas. En los aspectos de presentación, se propone usar vistas que hagan referencia a diccionarios globales, facilitando el procesamiento de los modelos y evitando inconsistencias. En la tercera capa, se considera la información especíca de las herramientas, que no se había considerado en aproximaciones anteriores. Como marco de experimentación, con esta guía se ha denido el metamodelo de la herramienta INGENIAS Development Kit (IDK) con el lenguaje ECore, permitiendo incorporar las facilidades tecnológicas de la comunidad Eclipse en dicha herramienta. Además, se ha denido un metamodelo para la generación de un editor de procesos de ISOA, basado en el Software Process Engineering Metamodel (SPEM) del Object Management Group (OMG). En esta tesis, se considera la aproximación conocida como Generación de Transformaciones Basadas en Ejemplo (GTBE), donde se generan transformaciones a partir de parejas de modelos prototipo origen y destino. De esta forma, se evita que el diseñador tenga que conocer los lenguajes de transformación y tratar con detalles de bajo nivel de la especi�cación de los modelos, tales como las primitivas de meta-modelado involucradas en cada elemento del modelo. Las transformaciones generadas transforman los modelos que encajan en los modelos prototipo origen en los nuevos modelos que encajen en los modelos prototipo destino. Es habitual que exista un mecanismo de asociación de atributos para referenciar los modelos prototipo origen desde los modelos prototipo destino, indicando así la forma de transferir la información en las transformaciones generadas. En esta línea, esta tesis presenta un nuevo algoritmo y herramienta para la GTBE, que mejora a los trabajos existentes en varios aspectos. En primer lugar, se permite realizar el mecanismo de asociación de atributos desde varios elementos de cada modelo prototipo origen, mientras que las aproximaciones existentes sólo permiten esta asociación desde un elemento de cada modelo prototipo. Este avance permite combinar información de los atributos de diferentes elementos. Además, el algoritmo permite trabajar con grafos no conexos en los modelos prototipo origen y destino, característica no presente en los trabajos anteriores. Como experimentación, se han generado transformaciones con utilidad práctica en ciertos desarrollos de SMAs. En los ejemplos propuestos, se observa como ciertas transformaciones no podrían haber sido generadas por otras herramientas de GTBE. [ABSTRACT] The Model Driven Development (MDD) is a paradigm of development in which models are the main product and systems are totally or partially generated from these models. When processing models, it is necessary to de�ne and transform them, which is accomplished with the de�nition of metamodels and transformations respectively. One of the �elds that is most bene�tted from MDD is the Agent Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE). AOSE is concerned with the development of Multi-agent Systems (MASs), which are distributed systems made of autonomous agents that interact with each other producing emergent behaviors. Although some aspects of MDD are considered in AOSE, there are still two facts that prevent AOSE from fully incorporating MDD. First, the deinition of metamodels depends on the expertise of designers, and there are not guidelines that facilitate this task. Second, existent tools and languages do not allow practitioners to de�ne model transformations with a moderate effort. Thus, this thesis proposes a guideline for defining metamodels and a mechanism for generating transformations. The guideline includes a framework for structuring metamodels, recommendations for taking the main decisions, and a sequence of activities for defining metamodels. The framework is structured in three layers that respectively contain the information of a modeling language, the aspects for presenting its models, and the tool-specific information. In the modeling language layer, several representations of elements are proposed, and the guideline indicates the manner in which each element can be associated with the most appropriate representations. In this guideline, practitioners decide between a heterogenous representation, which minimizes the number of meta-modeling elements required to represent the modeling elements, and a homogenous representation, which uses more meta-modeling elements but is easier to be automatically processed. The guideline also includes the choice between a redundant and a non-redundant representation, regarding the degree of navigability that is desired. It is worth noticing that references between elements are directed, so the e�ective processing of certain operations over relationships requires redundant inverse references. Regarding the aspects for presenting models, the guideline proposes to use views that make references to global dictionaries, facilitating the processing of models and avoiding inconsistencies. The third layer considers the tool-speci�c information, which is not considered in the existent approaches. For experimentation, the metamodel of the INGENIAS Development Kit (IDK) has been de�ned following the guideline using the ECore language, allowing the incorporation of the technological facilities of the Eclipse community in the IDK. Furthermore, a metamodel is de�ned for the generation of an editor of processes in AOSE based on the Software Process Engineering Metamodel (SPEM) of the Object Management Group (OMG). The second issue considered in this thesis is the di�culties for a cost-efective de�nition of model transformations. For this problem, this research considers the approach known as Model Transformation By-Example (MTBE), which generates transformations from pairs of source and target model prototypes, avoiding that designers have to learn transformation languages and deal with low-level details of the metamodels of the involved modeling languages. The generated transformations transform models that match source prototype models into the new models that �t the target prototype models. These approaches usually include a mechanism for the mapping of attributes that refer to source prototype models from elements in the target prototype models, indicating the way of transferring information in the generated transformations. In this line of research, this thesis presents a new algorithm and tool for MTBE, which overcome some limitations of the existent approaches. First, the presented approach provides a mechanism for mapping attributes from several elements of each source prototype model, while existent approaches only provide this mapping from one element of each source prototype model. This improvement allows one to combine information from the attributes of diferent elements. Moreover, the presented algorithm can process non-connected graphs in the source and target model prototypes, which is not possible in other approaches. For experimentation, the tool has generated transformations with practical utility in certain MAS developments. In the proposed examples, one can observe that certain transformations cannot be generated by other MTBE tools

Software Language Engineering: Interaction and Usability Modeling of Language Editors

Background: Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) are programming languages created to a specific domain that a user has pre-conceived. Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) represent a set of systems interacting within an environment, in which many intelligent agents interact with each other. Usability is a property of something that is "capable of being used"and "convenient and practicable for use". Barišic et al. introduced a conceptual framework that supports the iterative development process of DSLs concerning the usability evaluation. Semantic Web Enabled Agent Modeling Language (SEA_ML) is a DSL that supports the modeling and generation of action-based systems for MAS and the Semantic Web. It is defined by 44 visual notations. Objective: Improve SEA_ML’s usability using "The "Physics"of Notations" principles to create a new visual notation for SEA_ML. Method: (1) Participants test the current notation and the new notation on four exercises. For each exercise, a SUS questionnaire is presented. Participants should have better results on the exercises with the new notation. (2) Participants select the notations for SEA_ML. Participants receive a list with figures including the current and the new notation, alongside a set of descriptions for each of the semantic constructs of SEA_ML. Participants should select more icons from the new notation. Results: With the results gathered from each experience it is not clear that the new visual notations are better than the current notations. Limitation: The results from the guidelines were not evaluated broadly. Conclusion: The results for each experiment are not clear that the new notation is better than the current notation. This thesis is part of a scientific and technological co-operation between NOVA LINCS research center at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal, and Ege University International Computer Institute, Turkey. regarding the project Developing a Framework on Evaluating Domain specific Modeling Languages for Multi-Agent Systems

Development of intelligent multi-sensor surveillance systems with agents

Intelligent multisensor surveillance systems consist of several types of sensors, which are installed on fixed and mobile devices. These components provide a huge quantity of information that has to be contrasted, correlated and integrated in order to recognize and react on special situations. These systems work in highly dynamic environments, with severe security and robustness requirements. All these characteristics imply the need for distributed solutions. In these solutions, scattered components can decide and act with some degree of autonomy (for instance, if they become isolated), or cooperate and coordinate for a complete tracking of special situations. In order to cope with these requirements and to better structure the solution, we have decided to design surveillance system control as a multiagent system. This is done by applying an agent-orientated methodology, which is assessed with concrete scenarios

Multi-Agent Systems

A multi-agent system (MAS) is a system composed of multiple interacting intelligent agents. Multi-agent systems can be used to solve problems which are difficult or impossible for an individual agent or monolithic system to solve. Agent systems are open and extensible systems that allow for the deployment of autonomous and proactive software components. Multi-agent systems have been brought up and used in several application domains

A platform-independent domain-specific modeling language for multiagent systems

Associated with the increasing acceptance of agent-based computing as a novel software engineering paradigm, recently a lot of research addresses the development of suitable techniques to support the agent-oriented software development. The state-of-the-art in agent-based software development is to (i) design the agent systems basing on an agent-based methodology and (ii) take the resulting design artifact as a base to manually implement the agent system using existing agent-oriented programming languages or general purpose languages like Java. Apart from failures made when manually transform an abstract specification into a concrete implementation, the gap between design and implementation may also result in the divergence of design and implementation. The framework discussed in this dissertation presents a platform-independent domain-specific modeling language for MASs called Dsml4MAS that allows modeling agent systems in a platform-independent and graphical manner. Apart from the abstract design, Dsml4MAS also allows to automatically (i) check the generated design artifacts against a formal semantic specification to guarantee the well-formedness of the design and (ii) translate the abstract specification into a concrete implementation. Taking both together, Dsml4MAS ensures that for any well-formed design, an associated implementation will be generated closing the gap between design and code.Aufgrund wachsender Akzeptanz von Agentensystemen zur Behandlung komplexer Problemstellungen wird der Schwerpunkt auf dem Gebiet der agentenorientierten Softwareentwicklung vor allem auf die Erforschung von geeignetem Entwicklungswerkzeugen gesetzt. Stand der Forschung ist es dabei das Agentendesign mittels einer Agentenmethodologie zu spezifizieren und die resultierenden Artefakte als Grundlage zur manuellen Programmierung zu verwenden. Fehler, die bei dieser manuellen Überführung entstehen, machen insbesondere das abstrakte Design weniger nützlich in Hinsicht auf die Nachhaltigkeit der entwickelten Softwareapplikation. Das in dieser Dissertation diskutierte Rahmenwerk erörtert eine plattformunabhängige domänenspezifische Modellierungssprache für Multiagentensysteme namens Dsml4MAS. Dsml4MAS erlaubt es Agentensysteme auf eine plattformunabhängige und graphische Art und Weise darzustellen. Die Modellierungssprache umfasst (i) eine abstrakte Syntax, die das Vokabular der Sprache definiert, (ii) eine konkrete Syntax, die die graphische Darstellung spezifiziert sowie (iii) eine formale Semantik, die dem Vokabular eine präzise Bedeutung gibt. Dsml4MAS ist Bestandteil einer (semi-automatischen) Methodologie, die es (i) erlaubt die abstrakte Spezifikation schrittweise bis hin zur konkreten Implementierung zu konkretisieren und (ii) die Interoperabilität zu alternativen Softwareparadigmen wie z.B. Dienstorientierte Architekturen zu gewährleisten

Proceedings of The Multi-Agent Logics, Languages, and Organisations Federated Workshops (MALLOW 2010)

http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-627/allproceedings.pdfInternational audienceMALLOW-2010 is a third edition of a series initiated in 2007 in Durham, and pursued in 2009 in Turin. The objective, as initially stated, is to "provide a venue where: the cost of participation was minimum; participants were able to attend various workshops, so fostering collaboration and cross-fertilization; there was a friendly atmosphere and plenty of time for networking, by maximizing the time participants spent together"