The Agent Petri Nets (APN) formalism provides a set of adapted and specific tools, relations and functions for modeling multi-agent systems (MAS). However, there is a lack of tools for verifying the APN models. In order to fill some of these gaps, we propose in this paper, a meta-modeling approach based on the Model Driven Architecture (MDA). The Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) permits to define a generic APN Meta-model in Ecore informal format. Its abstraction level is very high, it offers as a basis for developing system models dedicated to various specific domains. In addition, the Object Constraint Language (OCL) aims to increase the structural verification level of the model and the Graphical Modeling Framework (GMF), for its part, is concerned with generating a graphical editor associated with the APN meta-model. Thus, we combine the rigor of APN formalism with the power of the MDA-based metamodeling tools for verifying APN models.

In this paper, a simplified simulation approach of the Agent Petri Nets (APN) model is proposed to facilitate and accelerate the development and evaluation of system models. The main idea is to apply the new trends of model-driven approach to the design of specific tools and provide facilities to evaluate quickly the developed system. The CINCO tooling suite is used to full generation of a specific graphical modelling tool for the APN model. The simulation code is simply added to the generated code. This tool allows users to build models based on Agent Petri Nets formalism and at the same time to execute these models. Combined APN with the CINCO tool greatly simplifies the development of modelling applications and allows users to get an early experience with a prototype system. To highlight the ability of the proposed tool, a real-life example of a traffic light adaptive system is considered and discussed here.

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