Juan Pavón

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.

Agent oriented software engineering with INGENIAS

INGENIAS is both a methodology and a set of tools for development of multi-agent systems (MAS). As a methodology, it tries to integrate results from other proposals and considers the MAS from five complementary viewpoints: organization, agent, tasks/goals, interactions, and environment. It is supported by a set of tools for modelling (graphical editor), documentation and code generation (for different agent platforms). INGENIAS is the result of the experience developing MAS in different areas, such as workflow management systems, recommender systems, Robocode teams, and PC assistants

FAML: A Generic Metamodel for MAS Development

In some areas of software engineering research, there are several metamodels claiming to capture the main issues. Though it is profitable to have variety at the beginning of a research field, after some time, the diversity of metamodels becomes an obstacle, for instance to the sharing of results between research groups. To reach consensus and unification of existing metamodels, metamodel-driven software language engineering can be applied. This paper illustrates an application of software language engineering in the agent-oriented software engineering research domain. Here, we introduce a relatively generic agent-oriented metamodel whose suitability for supporting modeling language development is demonstrated by evaluating it with respect to several existing methodology-specific metamodels. First, the metamodel is constructed by a combination of bottom-up and top-down analysis and best practice. The concepts thus obtained and their relationships are then evaluated by mapping to two agent-oriented metamodels: TAO and Islander. We then refine the metamodel by extending the comparisons with the metamodels implicit or explicit within five more extant agent-oriented approaches: Adelfe, PASSI, Gaia, INGENIAS, and Tropos. The resultant FAML metamodel is a potential candidate for future standardization as an important component for engineering an agent modeling language.

Development of intelligent multisensor 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.

Model driven development of multi-agent systems

From a software engineering point of view, the agent paradigm has shown its potential for modelling in different domains. However, moving from agent models to implementation is not fully addressed by most agent-oriented methodologies in a systematic way. In most cases, they focus on the agent concept at the analysis level or look for visual or formal representations of elements present in an already implemented agent framework. Here we show that model driven development with agent-based models can facilitate the implementation of methods and tools for the development of multi-agent systems. This is illustrated with the INGENIAS methodology and its tools, the INGENIAS Development Kit (IDK), which are founded on the definition of the INGENIAS meta-models for multi-agent systems, and implement most of the facilities that a model driven development approach requires.

Development of CBR-BDI Agents: A Tourist Guide Application

In this paper we present an agent-based application of a wireless tourist guide that combines the Beliefs-Desires-Intentions approach with learning capabilities of Case Base Reasoning techniques. This application shows how to develop adaptive agents with a goal driven design and a decision process built on a CBR architecture. The resulting agent architecture has been validated by real users who have used the tourist guide application, on a mobile device, and can be generalized for the development of other personalized services.

Agent-oriented software engineering

Considering the great number of agent-oriented methodologies that can be found in the literature, and the fact that each one defines its own concepts and system structure, one of the main challenges in agent-oriented software engineering (AOSE) research is how to make these methodologies interoperable. By defining concepts used in a specific domain in a non-ambiguous way, meta-modelling may represent a step towards such interoperability. Consequently the main objective of the AOSE TFG (Technical Forum Group) is to establish a strategy for identifying a common meta-model that could be widely adopted by the AOSE community. This paper sums up the approach used by this TFG which consists of (i) studying and comparing the meta-models related to some existing methodologies (ADELFE, Gaia, INGENIAS, PASSI, RICA and Tropos) in order to find commonalities and (ii) giving a clear and basic definition for the core concepts used in multi-agent systems for relating and positioning them in a unified MAS meta-model. The first proposal, set up by the working group, for this unified meta-model then concludes this paper.

Agent-based modelling and simulation for the analysis of social patterns

Agent-based modelling facilitates the implementation of tools for the analysis of social patterns. This comes from the fact that agent related concepts allow the representation of organizational and behavioural aspects of individuals in a society and their interactions. An agent can characterize an individual with capabilities to perceive and react to events in the environment, taking into account its mental state (beliefs, goals), and to interact with other agents in its social environment. There are already tools to perform agent-based social simulation but these are usually hard to use by social scientists, as they require a good expertise in computer programming. In order to cope with such difficulty, we propose the use of agent-based graphical modelling languages, which can help to specify social systems as multi-agent systems in a more convenient way. This is complemented with transformation tools to be able to analyse and derive emergent social behavioural patterns by using the capabilities of existing simulation platforms. In this way, this framework can facilitate the specification and analysis of complex behavioural patterns that may emerge in social systems.

Understanding the human context in requirements elicitation

The human context within which a software system will operate is fundamental for its requirements. It may not appear to be very much related to the system, but it is very relevant in achieving its successful adoption. However, requirements engineers have usually a background in Software Engineering and are not trained to elicit this kind of information. This situation raises the need for analytical tools to deal with these features. These tools should enable collaborative work between requirements engineers, who use them in development, social practitioners, who provide the knowledge and processes underlying these tools, and the customers, who know the domain and intended application of the projects. The framework presented in this paper is based on the socio-psychological Activity Theory and its analysis of human contexts. It includes a repository of social properties and a process to perform this elicitation using it. The paper illustrates its application through a case study on the impact of a new system in the organization of a firm.

Testing and Debugging of MAS Interactions with INGENIAS

Testing and debugging activities are getting more relevance in multi-agent systems (MAS) as agents become part of real applications. Both activities are related, since failures to be debugged are frequently detected during the execution of tests. The support for these activities is not yet as complete as other activities of MAS development. However, agent oriented software engineering methodologies are incorporating new testing and debugging features. In this direction, the paper introduces advances made in the INGENIAS agent development framework towards a complete coverage of testing and debugging activities. The advances are compared with respect to a categorisation of related works in the agent literature. This categorisation will be useful for evaluating and planning issues for improvement in the context of INGENIAS.