Engineering Multiagent Systems - Reflections

This report documents the programme and outcomes of Dagstuhl Seminar 12342 ``Engineering multiagent Systems\u27\u27. The seminar brought together researchers from both academia and industry to identify the potential for and facilitate convergence towards standards for agent technology. As such it was particularly relevant to industrial research. A key objective of the seminar, moreover, has been to establish a road map for engineering multiagent systems. Various research areas have been identified as important topics for a research agenda with a focus on the development of multiagent systems. Among others, these include the integration of agent technology and legacy systems, component-based agent design, standards for tooling, establishing benchmarks for agent technology, and the development of frameworks for coordination and organisation of multiagent systems. This report presents a more detailed discussion of these and other research challenges that were identified. The unique atmosphere of Dagstuhl provided the perfect environment for leading researchers from a wide variety of backgrounds to discuss future directions in programming languages, tools and platforms for multiagent systems, and the road map produced by the seminar will have a timely and decisive impact on the future of this whole area of research

Multiagent Systems Engineering: A Methodology for Analysis and Design of Multiagent Systems

This thesis defines a methodology for the creation of multiagent systems, the Multiagent Systems Engineering (MaSE) methodology. The methodology is a key issue in the development of any complex system and there is currently no standard or widely used methodology in the realm of multiagent systems. MaSE covers the entire software lifecycle, starting from an initial prose specification, and creating a set of formal design documents in a graphical style based on a formal syntax. The final product of MaSE is a diagram describing the deployment of a system of intelligent agents that communicate through structured conversations. MaSE was created with the mention of being supported by an automated design tool. The tool built to support MaSE, agent Tool, is a multiagent system development tool for designing and synthesizing complex multiagent systems

Engineering regulated open multiagent systems

In this thesis, w e focus on the d e velopment o f normati v e open multiagent systems. The y are systems in which heterogeneous and autonomous agents may need to coexist in a complex social and legal framework that can evolve to address the different and often conflicting objecti ves of the man y stak eholders inv olved. This thesis presents ROMAS, a set o f methods and tools for analyzing and designing systems o f this kind. R OMAS inte grates the analysis, design and v erification o f these systems by means o f a metamodel, a methodology that includes specific de v elopment guidelines and a model-dri ven CASE tool.The author wish to thank R. Bejar and F. Manya for supervising this PhD thesis. Supported by MINECO projects TIN2009-14704-C03-01 and TIN2010-20967-C04-01/03.Garcia Marques, ME. (2014). Engineering regulated open multiagent systems. AI Communications. 27:417-419. https://doi.org/10.3233/AIC-1406104174192

Consensus stabilizability and exact consensus controllability of multi-agent linear systems

A goal in engineering systems is to try to control them. Control theory offers mathematical tools for steering engineered systems towards a desired state. Stabilizability and controllability can be studied under different points of view, in particular, we focus on measure of controllability in the sense of the minimum set of controls that need for to steer the multiagent system toward any desired state. In this paper, we study the consensus stabilizability and exact consensus controllability of multi-agent linear systems, in which all agents have a same linear dynamic mode that can be in any orderPostprint (published version

Building the Core Architecture of a NASAa Multiagent System Product Line

The field of Software Product Lines (SPL) emphasizes building a family of software products from which concrete products can be derived rapidly. This helps to reduce time-to-market, costs, etc., and can result in improved software quality and safety. Current Agent-Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) methodologies are concerned with developing a single Multiagent System. The main contribution of this paper is a proposal to developing the core architecture of a Multiagent Systems Product Line (MAS-PL), exemplifying our approach with reference to a concept NASA mission based on multiagent technology

Building the Core Architecture of a NASA Multiagent System Product Line

The field of Software Product Lines (SPL) emphasizes build- ing a family of software products from which concrete products can be derived rapidly. This helps to reduce time-to-market, costs, etc., and can result in improved software quality and safety. Current Agent-Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) methodologies are concerned with devel- oping a single Multiagent System. The main contribution of this paper is a proposal to developing the core architecture of a Multiagent Systems Product Line (MAS-PL), exemplifying our approach with reference to a concept NASA mission based on multiagent technology

Is a Semantic Web Agent a Knowledge-Savvy Agent?

The issue of knowledge sharing has permeated the field of distributed AI and in particular, its successor, multiagent systems. Through the years, many research and engineering efforts have tackled the problem of encoding and sharing knowledge without the need for a single, centralized knowledge base. However, the emergence of modern computing paradigms such as distributed, open systems have highlighted the importance of sharing distributed and heterogeneous knowledge at a larger scale—possibly at the scale of the Internet. The very characteristics that define the Semantic Web—that is, dynamic, distributed, incomplete, and uncertain knowledge—suggest the need for autonomy in distributed software systems. Semantic Web research promises more than mere management of ontologies and data through the definition of machine-understandable languages. The openness and decentralization introduced by multiagent systems and service-oriented architectures give rise to new knowledge management models, for which we can’t make a priori assumptions about the type of interaction an agent or a service may be engaged in, and likewise about the message protocols and vocabulary used. We therefore discuss the problem of knowledge management for open multi-agent systems, and highlight a number of challenges relating to the exchange and evolution of knowledge in open environments, which pertinent to both the Semantic Web and Multi Agent System communities alike

A Framework for Normative MultiAgent Organisations

The social and organisational aspects of agency have led to a good amount of theoretical work in terms of formal models and theories. From these different works normative multiagent systems and multiagent organisations are particularily considered in this paper. Embodying such models and theories in the conception and engineering of proper infrastructures that achieve requirements of openness and adaptation, is still an open issue. In this direction, this paper presents and discusses a framework for normative multiagent organisations. Based on the Agents and Artifacts meta-model (A&A), it introduces organisational artifacts as first class entities to instrument the normative organisation for supporting agents activities within it

Comparing Agent Software Development Methodologies Using the Waterfall Model

This paper explores three widely published agent-based software development methodologies, Multiagent Systems Engineering Methodology (MaSE), Prometheus, and Tropos, using the traditional Waterfall model of software engineering as a baseline. Differences between the methodologies are examined and gaps between the agent-based methodologies and the Waterfall approach are identified