Giovanni Caire

Agent Oriented Analysis Using Message/UML

This paper presents the MESSAGE/UML agent oriented software engineering methodology and illustrates it on an analysis case study. The methodology covers MAS analysis and design and is intended for use in mainstream software engineering departments. MESSAGE integrates into a coherent AOSE methodology some basic agent related concepts such as Organization, role, goal and task, that have so far been studied in isolation. The MESSAGE notation extends the UML with agent knowledge level concepts, and diagrams with notations for viewing them. The proposed diagrams extend UML class and activity diagrams.

JADE: A software framework for developing multi-agent applications. Lessons learned

Since a number of years agent technology is considered one of the most innovative technologies for the development of distributed software systems. While not yet a mainstream approach in software engineering at large, a lot of work on agent technology has been done, many research results and applications have been presented, and some software products exists which have moved from the research community to the industrial community. One of these is JADE, a software framework that facilitates development of interoperable intelligent multi-agent systems and that is distributed under an Open Source License. JADE is a very mature product, used by a heterogeneous community of users both in research activities and in industrial applications. This paper presents JADE and its technological components together with a discussion of the possible reasons for its success and lessons learned from the somewhat detached perspective possible nine years after its inception.

Jade — A Java Agent Development Framework

JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) is a software environment to build agent systems for the management of networked information resources in compliance with the FIPA specifications for interoperable multi-agent systems. JADE provides a middleware for the development and execution of agent-based applications which can seamless work and interoperate both in wired and wireless environment. Moreover, JADE supports the development of multi-agent systems through the predefined programmable and extensible agent model and a set of management and testing tools. Currently, JADE is one of the most used and promising agent development framework; in fact, it has a large user group, involving more than two thousands active members, it has been used to realize real systems in different application sectors, and its future development is guided by a governing board involving some important industrial companies.

Deploying FIPA-compliant systems on handheld devices

LEAP is a runtime environment for deploying agents on a network of Java-enabled devices. It complies with FIPA international standards for multiagent systems. The Lightweight Extensive Agent Platform project is the first attempt to implement a FIPA agent platform that runs seamlessly on both mobile and fixed devices over both wireless and wired networks.

Interactive Workflows with WADE

In this paper we present the latest developments of WADE (Workflows and Agents Development Environment) that provide concrete support for a better realization of the innovative paradigm of agent-based business process management. First, we review the basic ideas behind such an innovative paradigm. Then, we describe the new functionality that WADE offers to enable the rapid and effective realization of user-centric business processes, i.e., business processes that are tightly integrated with the work of users and that are mainly driven by user interactions. Such processes are met frequently in practice and WADE seamlessly accommodates Web and Android users by means of dedicated views. We conclude this paper with a brief overview of notable mission-critical applications that are already using WADE and its new features.

Agent-based Social Gaming with AMUSE☆

Abstract This paper describes the core features and the multi-agent architecture of AMUSE (Agent-based Multi-User Social Environment), a novel agent-based platform for social gaming. AMUSE is designed to offer game developers readymade solutions to many issues that are common to social games like, e.g., advanced management of matches, turns and players. AMUSE is developed on top of WADE to leverage the scalable and solid agent-based deployment environment and the PaaS approach that it provides. This paper first outlines some of the motivations that originated the development of AMUSE. Then, it presents the multi-agent architecture of AMUSE and it enumerates the major applicative features that the platform provides. Finally, the paper briefly outlines initial experiments on game prototyping using the platform.

Large-Scale Network and Service Management with WANTS

This chapter presents an overview of WANTS (Workflow and AgeNTS), an agent-based platform for large-scale network and service management that has been in daily use for broadband service provisioning and assurance for more than five years. The chapter first outlines the role of WANTS in the management of the broadband network of Telecom Italia and sketches its main features. Then, it briefly describes the major elements of the architecture of WANTS and maps them against the core features of WADE (Workflows and Agents Development Environment), the open-source platform for agent-based BPM (business process management) that WANTS uses. Finally, the chapter outlines a summary of the experience of using agent technologies in such a high-profile setting and emphasizes the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed solution.

Wolf An Eclipse Plug-In for WADE

This paper describes WOLF, a development environment for WADE-based applications. WADE is a software platform, based on JADE, a popular Open Source framework, for the development of distributed applications based on the agent oriented paradigm and exploiting the workflow metaphor to define system logics. The main advantage of the workflow metaphor is the expressiveness of the workflow itself, since it can be easily understood both by programmers and domain experts. The main feature of WOLF is the support for the graphical definition of workflows. Besides that, it also helps developers in setting up an Eclipse project for developing and managing WADE-based applications. WOLF is an Eclipse Plug-in and, as a consequence, allows WADE developers to exploit the full power of the Eclipse IDE.The paper focuses on the graphical definition of workflows and shows how WADE can take advantage of WOLF in defining the system logics by means of workflows.

The Message Methodology

This chapter presents MESSAGE, an innovative agent oriented software engineering methodology, and it illustrates this methodology on an analysis and design case study. The methodology covers all phases of the software lifecycle, but focuses on MAS analysis and high-level design. It is intended for use in mainstream software engineering departments. MESSAGE integrates into a coherent AOSE methodology some basic agent related concepts such as organization, role, goal and task, that have so far been studied in isolation. The MESSAGE notation extends the UML with agent knowledge level concepts, and provides graphical notations for viewing them. The proposed diagrams extend UML class and activity diagrams.

To What Extent Does It Pay to Approach Open Source Software for a Big Telco Player

In this paper we describe the strategy under adoption in Telecom Italia (TI) Technology Department toward open source software. This stems from trying to create synergy among big Telco Player to increase knowledge and influence over strategic communities to the evaluation of the creation of new communities over internally developed applications. In particular here the approach and the expectations in starting the community on WADE (Workflow and Agent Development Environment) is described. This is a platform used to develop mission critical applications and is the main evolution of JADE a popular Open Source framework for the development of interoperable intelligent multi-agent systems. It adds to JADE the support for the execution of tasks defined according to the workflow metaphor as well as a number of mechanisms that help managing the complexity of the distribution both in terms of administration and fault tolerance. The idea is to use WADE as a mean to gather critical information on the opportunity of approaching OS as a strategic mean toward the development of always more important application in Operating Support System for TI, possibly also involving other great Telco Players For this reason great care is being paid in setting up the Community environment and in deciding which metrics are to be extracted from it, since the result will be the input for a strategic decision in TI.