Organisational Abstractions for the Analysis and Design of Multi-agent Systems

Zambonelli, Franco; Jennings, Nicholas R.; Wooldridge, Michael

doi:10.1007/3-540-44564-1_16

Cited by 182 publications

(134 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Every agent of the MAS plays at least one role in an organization. Agents may interact with each other and cooperate either to achieve a common goal, or to achieve their own goals [74]. The agent interactions are based on relationships defined between organization roles.…”

Section: Tao: An Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Taming Agents and Objects in Software Engineering

Silva

Garcia

Brandão

et al. 2003

Software Engineering for Large-Scale Multi-Agent Systems

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Abstract. Agent-based software engineering has been proposed in addition to object-oriented software engineering as a means of mastering the complexity associated with the development of large-scale distributed systems. However, there is still a poor understanding of the interplay between the notions of agents and objects from a software engineering perspective. Moreover, the many facets of agent-based software engineering are rarely used in the various phases of the software development lifecycle because of the lack of a comprehensive framework to provide the software designers with a clear understanding of the use of these two key abstractions. In this context, this paper presents TAO, an evolving innovative conceptual framework based on agent and object abstractions, which are the foundations for modeling large-scale software systems. The conceptual framework allows for the characterization of largescale software systems as organizations of passive components, the objects, and autonomous components, the agents, with each of these elements playing roles to interact with each other and to coordinate their actions in order to fulfill system goals.

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Section: Tao: An Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…MAS comprises a set of grouped agents immersed in one or more environments whose global behavior is derived from the interaction among the constituent agents [74]. The group of agents comprising the MAS defines organizations whose goals are the same as the MAS.…”

Section: Grouping Abstractionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Taming Agents and Objects in Software Engineering

Silva

Garcia

Brandão

et al. 2003

Software Engineering for Large-Scale Multi-Agent Systems

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, an agent requiring assistance in some task may ask its peer agents (i.e., agents at the same level in the organizational hierarchy [27]) if they are able to provide it. Organizational role models can also be used to impose organizational rules and to introduce social relations among agents in a multi-agent system [28,46].…”

Section: Role Model Typesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are five analysis models and three design models in MESSAGE [9], three analysis models and four design models in SODA [34], and two analysis models and three design models in Gaia [46]. The main drawback of these approaches is that after a certain point the design decisions are left solely to the creativity and intuition of the designer.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Agent-Based System Design for B2B Electronic Commerce

Karageorgos¹,

Thompson²,

Mehandjiev³

2002

International Journal of Electronic Commerce

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Agent-based systems are increasingly used to support business-to-business (B2B) electronic commerce and other Internet-based transactions. The design complexit y resulting from the multiple interconnected systems in these domains has to be managed in order to reduce costs and time to market. This paper introduces the Role-Algebraic Multi-Agent System Design (RAMASD) approach. RAMASD utilizes role models as reusable system-building blocks and a role algebra to capture the basic relations of roles. A t wo-sorted algebra is used to define the role algebra's semantics. RAMASD reduces the complexity of designing agent-based B2B e-commerce systems by enabling designers to work at a high level of abstraction and by automatically allocating roles to agents according to applicable role models and design constraints.A case study concerning a B2B electronic market for the automotive industry demonstrates the applicability of RAMASD. The advantages and disadvantages of the proposed approach are discussed, and comparisons with relevant work are made.KEY WORDS AND PHRASES: Agent-oriented software engineering, agent organizations, agent-based e-business.Agent technology has come to the forefront in the software industry because of the advantages that agents have in complex, distributed environments. It is increasingly used in Internet-based transactions, including electronic commerce and cross-organizational workflow management [7,24].Designing an agent-based B2B electronic commerce system is a complex process in which it is necessary to define both the structural relationships between agents and individual agent behavior. Many authors view agent-based systems as organized societies of individual computational entities and thus see designing an agent-based system as designing an agent organization (e.g., [14,38,43]).1 Since the criteria affecting agent organization design decisions are numerous and highly dependent on factors that may change dynamically, there is no standard best organization for all situations [34,38]. Furthermore, to reduce cost and time to market, agent system design decisions should be reusable while both functional and nonfunctional aspects are considered [6].Existing approaches to agent-based system design fail to address design complexity in that they require the designer to make most of the decisions without the assistance of a software tool [29,39,43]. This can be a serious drawback when designing large and complex agent-based B2B e-commerce systems for the real world. Therefore, many authors argue that collective behavior as well as social and organizational abstractions should be considered as first-class design constructs, enabling the agent system designer to reason at a high level of abstraction (e.g., [22,28]).This paper proposes an approach that provides semiautomatic support for the high-level design of agent-based B2B electronic commerce systems. It uses role models as basic building blocks, and formalizes the rules and constraints Designing Agent-Based SystemsEarly research protot...

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Intelligent Control of Material Handling Systems

Hallenborg

2015

Mechanical Engineers' Handbook

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This chapter starts with an introduction of a more decentralized approach for controlling systems for manufacturing and material handling. Different approaches for intelligent control is discussed, and finally two cases of material handling is presented, one large‐scale complex system of baggage handling in an airport and the other a case of scheduling items through a manufacturing process. A conceptual introduction to agent technologies is given which summarizes some of the important characteristics about both the single agent and when they collectively become a multiagent system. Architectures which describe the internal structure of the agent were discussed in the perspective of different agent types. Reactive agents directly respond to perceived inputs, whereas deliberative agents proactively pursue their own goals. This chapter introduced a number of structures to facilitate this, such as a hierarchical or team‐based organization.

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Organisational Abstractions for the Analysis and Design of Multi-agent Systems

Cited by 182 publications

References 29 publications

Taming Agents and Objects in Software Engineering

Taming Agents and Objects in Software Engineering

Agent-Based System Design for B2B Electronic Commerce

Intelligent Control of Material Handling Systems

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