PASSI: Process for Agent Societies Specification and Implementation

PASSI (a Process for Agent Societies Specification and Implementation) is a step-by-step requirement-to-code methodology for designing and developing multiagent societies, integrating design models and concepts from both Object-Oriented software engineering and artificial intelligence approaches using the UML notation. The models and phases of PASSI encompass anthropomorphic representation of system requirements, social viewpoint, solution architecture, code production and reuse, and deployment configuration supporting mobility of agents. PASSI is made up of five models, concerning different design levels, and 12 activities performed to build multiagent systems. In PASSI, the UML notation i…

Metrics for evaluating modularity and extensibility in HMAS systems

Nowadays, software systems are more and more frequently designed in order to realize complex dynamical behavior for solving complicated problems. Holonic Multi Agent Systems (HMAS) is spreading for the development of such systems since they allow to manage system requirements in terms of behaviors and organizational patterns. Traditional software engineering metrics are not useful for measuring HMAS ar- chitectures since they do not consider different nested levels of organizational structures. We want to contribute to this issue proposing some metrics for evaluating modularity and extensibility of HMAS architectures.

A heuristic for problem formalization in agent based simulation studies

Agent Based Modeling and Simulation (ABMS) is considered an effective approach for conducting simulation studies in many fields. In order to develop high quality simulation models, methodological approaches are demanded. In such direction we are moving by proposing a heuristic for the formalization of agent based simulation problems. The proposed heuristic is based on some guidelines developed for identifying the main elements of the problem domain description by analysing verbs and their common taxonomy in grammar.

Supporting Autonomy in Agent Oriented Methodologies

Designing a software solution for a complex systems is always a demanding task, it becomes much more complex if we consider to design a multi agent system where agents have to exhibit autonomy; which abstractions and which concepts to take into consideration when using a design methodology we would like to support autonomy? In this paper, we answer this question by studying and analyzing literature on the concept of agents in order to establish the basic set of concepts an agent oriented methodology has to deal with.

Goal-Oriented Development of BDI Agents: The PRACTIONIST Approach

The representation of goals and the ability to reason about them play an important role in goal-oriented requirements analysis and modelling techniques, especially in agent-oriented software engineering, as goals are more stable than other abstractions (e.g. user stories). In PRACTIONIST, a framework for developing agent systems according to the Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) model, goals play a central role. Thus, in this paper we describe the structure of the goal model in the PRACTIONIST framework and how agents use their goal model to reason about goals, desires, and intentions during their deliberation process and means-ends reasoning as well as while performing their activities.

A Norm-Governed Holonic Multi-agent System Metamodel

Modeling and designing systems that require a high level of coordination, control and automation is a very difficult task. The problem is the lack of design processes able to cover all the features these systems present. This paper presents an extension of the ASPECS metamodel for supporting organizational and normative principles and it allows to define models not only from an holonic agent viewpoint but also from a normative organization perspective. Moreover, our work emphasizes and makes it explicit the norms that regulate the structural, behavioral and finally adaptive aspect of an organizational system. The extended metamodel was experimented creating a Virtual Enterprise model for th…

A genome based vision of multi-agent systems

A set of software agents can be programmed to provide a large but finite set of services, often defined during design phase. After an evolution of the external environment, the pre-defined services could be unable to satisfy the requested quality. In this work it is proposed an agent framework capable to adapt the agents in order to improve the quality of services provided by an agent society in correspondence with a modification of the external environment. These agents are based on a biologically inspired structure (genome), that de- fines all their behaviors and knowledges. The effectiveness of the approach is proved by a set of successful experimental results

Engineering Self-adaptive Systems: From Experiences with MUSA to a General Design Process

Designing and developing complex self-adaptive systems require design processes having specific features fitting and representing the complexity of these systems. Changing requirements, users’ needs and dynamic environment have to be taken in consideration, also considering that, due of the self-adaptive nature of the system, the solution is not fixed at design time but it is a run-time outcome. Traditional design approach and life cycles are not suitable to design software systems where requirements continuously change at runtime. A new design process paradigm is needed to design such systems. In this Chapter, we present a retrospective analysis based on three projects developed in the las…

Session details: Agent-oriented methodologies, infrastructures and processes track

Towards The Adoption of a Perception-Driven Perspective in the Design of Complex Robotic Systems

Awareness and autonomous interaction with the environment in a robotic system is the base of the new discipline of machine consciousness. In this paper we present the results of a first attempt in order to engineer these robotic systems by applying a Situational Method Engineering approach that extends PASSI and to create a model for conscious systems.

Introduction

Nowadays, software engineers face a wide range of particular application domains such as electronic commerce, enterprise resource planning, mobile computing, self-organisation, pervasive and adaptive computing, etc. The resulting heterogeneity and required functionalities call for complex systems and open architectures that may evolve dynamically over time so as to accommodate new components and meet new requirements. This is probably one of the main reasons why the agent metaphor and agent-based computing are gaining momentum in these areas.

Common and Domain-specific Metamodel Elements for Problem Description in Simulation Problems

It is well known that the multi-agent system paradigm is well suited for modelling and developing simulations of complex systems belonging to several application domains. Simulation study aims at developing simulation models useful for representing, studying and analyzing entities and their behavior in a system according to specific purposes. With our work we are trying to understand what are the right elements to be considered and included in the description of a simulation problem. In order to root our resulting metamodel in the state of the art of multi-agent simulations we started from the study of twelve papers dealing with four different application domains: Crowd Dynamics, Traffic an…

Engineering multi-agent systems using feedback loops and holarchies

This paper presents a methodological approach for the engineering of Multi-Agent Systems using feedback loops as a first class concept in order to identify organizations. Feedback loops are a way for modeling complex systems that expose emergent behavior by means of a cause-effect loop between two levels called micro and macro levels of the system. The proposed approach principles consist in defining an abstract feedback loop pattern and providing activities and guidelines in order to identify and refine possible candidates for feedback loops during the analysis phase of the Aspecs methodology. This approach is illustrated by using an example drawn from the smart grid field.

The OpenUp Process

The Open Unified Process (OpenUp) is an iterative design process that structures the project lifecycle into four phases: Inception, Elaboration, Construction, and Transition. It is part of the Eclipse Process Framework and embraces a pragmatic, agile philosophy that focuses on the collaborative nature of software development. It is a tools-agnostic, low-ceremony process that can be extended to address a broad variety of project types. The project lifecycle provides stakeholders and team members with visibility and decision points throughout the project and makes them able to manage their work through micro-increments.

Towards a design process for modeling MAS organizations

The design of MAS organizations is a complex activity where a proper methodological approach may offer a significant advantage in enabling the conception of the best solution. Moreover, the aid provided by a supporting tool significantly contributes to make the approach technically sound and it is a fundamental ingredient of a feasible strategy to the development of large MASs. In this paper, we introduce a portion of methodological approach devoted to design MAS organizations and a preliminary version of a specific case tool, named MoT (Moise+ Tool), for supporting activities from design production to automatic code generation. MoT provides four kinds of diagrams based on a definite graphi…

A repository of fragments for agent systems design

The creation of a new design process for a specific situation using the method engineering approach is based on the composition of a set of reusable method fragments. The request for these reusable method fragments leads to the need for a repository containing standardized fragments that can be easily selected and assembled in new design processes. In this work we present a definition of method fragment coming from the work of the FIPA Technical Committee Methodology and a repository where fragments are classified according to the specific process component (activity, process role, and work product) they underpin and on the specific MAS Metamodel element(s) they work on.

A collaborative tool for designing and enacting design processes

Today several approaches using Situational Method Engineering paradigm exist, each of them proposes methods and techniques for developing ad-hoc design processes. In this context heavy efforts were spent in the construction of appropriate tools that could help method engineers in producing a specific design process and in using it. We developed a tool called Metameth for supporting the design process definition and its enactment. Metameth is implemented as a multi-agent system, where each agent is capable of reasoning and adapting itself in order to support the designer in performing different kinds of design activities.

THE METAMODEL: A STARTING POINT FOR DESIGN PROCESSES CONSTRUCTION

The construction of ad-hoc design processes following the Situational Method Engineering (SME) paradigm is currently carried out by adopting a set of phases for which, until now, no well defined techniques and guidelines have been established. The consequence is that organizations are very dependent on method designers' skills. In this paper, we propose an approach based on SME for constructing customized agent oriented design processes. Our approach adopts the metamodel as the most important factor leading to the selection and assembly of method fragments and an algorithm for establishing the instantiation order of metamodel elements. The algorithm makes the proposed approach repeatable a…

Simulation Goals and Metrics Identification

Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation (ABMS) is a very useful means for producing high quality models during simulation studies. When ABMS is part of a methodological ap- proach it becomes important to have a method for identifying the objectives of the simulation study in a disciplined fashion. In this work we propose a set of guidelines for properly capturing and representing the goals of the simulations and the metrics, allowing and evaluating the achievement of a simulation objective. We take inspiration from the goal-question-metric approach and with the aid of a specific problem formalization we are able to derive the right questions for relating simulation goals and metrics.

Composition of a New Process to Meet Agile Needs Using Method Engineering

The need of developing a new software engineering process to allow the quick prototyping of some robotic applications and meet the requests by some companies for a development process that was shorter than PASSI, gave us the opportunity of applying our studies on the assembling of a new SEP by reusing parts (called method fragments) from other processes. In this paper we discuss our approach that, starting from the method engineering paradigm, adapts and extends it considering specific agent-oriented issues like the multi-agent system meta-model. The final result of our experiment (Agile PASSI) is presented together with the requirements that motivated its structure. © Springer-Verlag Berli…

How to Extract Fragments from Agent Oriented Design Processes

Using Method Engineering for creating agent oriented design processes is a challenging task because of the lack of a fragment repository defined and filled starting from a shared and unique definition of fragment. The creation of a repository implies the fragmentation of existing agent design processes. In this paper we propose a set of guidelines for extracting fragments from agent design processes. The work is based on a precise definition of fragment and it aims to establish a method for fragmenting processes and obtaining homogeneous fragments regardless of how the starting design processes are defined and described. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.

Intelligent Energy Management System

Energy management is nowadays a subject of great importance and complexity. It consists in choosing among a set of sources able to produce energy that will give energy to a set of loads by minimising losses and costs. The sources and loads are heterogeneous, distributed and the reaction of the system, the choice of sources, must be done in real-time to avoid power outage. The goal of this paper is to present a system able to self-regulate a heterogeneous set of power sources and loads organised as a coherent group of entities that is called micro-grid, in order to optimize several criteria such as: cost and efficiency. This system is based upon the Multi-Agent Systems paradigm. Each micro-g…

Modeling ontologies for robotic environments

On the basis of a multiple abstraction levels specification process, we developed a representational model for environmental robotic knowledge through the definition of a set of ontologies using a multi perspective approach. A general ontological model for typical indoor environments has been first developed, followed by its specialization using an implementation perspective. Actual software implementation of the ontology has been obtained via a XML-based markup language, used to build a repository for robotic environmental knowledge. Copyright 2002 ACM.

An Approach for the Design of Self-conscious Agent for Robotics

Developing complex robotic systems endowed with self- conscious abilities and subjective experience is a hard requirement to face at design time. This paper deals with the development of robotic systems that do not own any a-priori knowledge of the environment they live in and proposes an agent-orientd design process for modelling and implementing such a systems by means of implementing the perception loop occurring between environment, body and brain during subjective experience. A case study dealing with a robocup setup is proposed in order to describe the design process activities and to illustrate the techniques for making the robot able to autonomously decide when an unknown situations…

Requirement analysis abstractions for AmI system design

Current trends in the AI’s evolution are going towards enriching environments with intelligence in order to support humans in their everyday life. AmI systems are plunged in the real world and humans expect to interact with them in a way that is similar to the one they have with other humans. In this kind of systems, where eliciting requirements involves several documents and stakeholders (mainly users that will be the first consumers of the system), the requirement analysis phase can be affected by incomplete, ambiguous and imprecise information. Hence, the need to find a fruitful way for knowledge management and its representation at design time. In this paper we propose a set of abstract…

Session details: Agent-oriented software engineering methodologies and systems track

Patterns Reuse in the PASSI methodology

Design patterns already proved successful in lowering the development time and number of errors of object-oriented software; now, they are, candidate to play a similar role in the MAS (multi-agent system) context. In this work we describe our experiences in the identification, production and application of patterns for agents. Some patterns are described together with the classification criteria and documentation approach we adopt. Upon them, we base a pattern reuse process that can be considered one of the distinguishing elements of the design methodology (PASSI) we use to develop MAS. Patterns can be applied to an existing agent or used to produce a new one with the support of a specific …

Discovering learning paths on a domain ontology using natural language interaction

The present work investigates the problem of determining a learning path inside a suitable domain ontology. The proposed approach enables the user of a web learning application to interact with the system using natural language in order to browse the ontology itself. The course related knowledge is arranged as a three level hierarchy: content level, symbolic level, and conceptual level bridging the previous ones. The implementation of the ontological, the interaction, and the presentation component inside the TutorJ system is explained, and the first results are presented.

A possible approach to the development of robotic multi-agent systems

The design of a an agent system for robotics is a problem that involves aspects coming from many different disciplines (robotics, artificial intelligence, computer vision, software engineering). The most difficult part of it, often consists in producing and tuning the algorithms that incorporates the robot behavior (planning, obstacle avoidance,. . . ) and abilities (vision, manipulation, navigation,. . . ). Frequently, the reuse of these parts is left to a copy and paste procedure from previous applications to the new one. In so doing many problems could arise. We propose a comprehensive approach for multi-agent systems oriented to robotics applications that uses a complete design methodol…

Ontology and goal model in designing BDI multi-agent systems

Nowadays several methodological approaches exist, each of them tightly tied up with the implementation platform supporting it. In this paper we propose an intermediate step toward the definition of a methodological approach for supporting the JACAMO framework. This paper resumes a previous work, focused on modeling BDI organizations, and we now address the requirements analysis phase. In particular, we propose the use of an ontological model and a goal model for representing requirements and the domain formalization respectively. The two portions of design process are connected by a heuristic process that allows to extract goals from the ontological model. The resulting models are also used…

Using and Extending the SPEM Specifications to Represent Agent Oriented Methodologies

Situational Method Engineering used for constructing ad-hoc agent oriented design processes is grounded on a well defined set of phases that are principally based on reuse of components coming from existing agent design processes; these components have to be stored in a repository. The identification and extraction of these components could take large advantages from the existence of a standardized representation of the design processes they come from. In this paper we illustrate our solution based on SPEM 2.0 specifications for modelling agent design processes and extending them when necessary to meet the specific needs we faced in our experiments.

A comparison of deontic matrices, maps and activity diagrams for the construction of situational methods

Several approaches have been proposed to support situational method engineering (SME), each of them providing different techniques and using different basic concepts. In this work, we propose a framework for comparing SME approaches based on a generic SME process model. Three approaches are presented and compared by using this framework.

Conquering Fine-Grained Blends of Design Patterns

The reuse of design patterns in realistic software systems is often a result of blending multiple pattern elements together rather than instantiating them in an isolated manner. The explicit description of pattern compositions is the key for (i) documenting the structure and the behavior of blended patterns and, (ii) more importantly, supporting the reuse of composite patterns across different software projects. In this context, this paper proposes a fine-grained composition language for describing varying blends of design patterns based on their structural and behavioural semantics. The reusability and expressiveness of the proposed language are assessed through its application to 32 compo…

Software Design of an AGI System Based on Perception Loop

According to the externalist approach, subjective experience hypothesizes a processual unity between the activity in the brain and the perceived event in the external world. A perception loop therefore occurs among the brain's activitie8 and the external world. In our work the metaphor of test is employed to create a software de8ign methodology for implementing an AGI system endowed with the perception loop. Preliminary experiments with a NAO humanoid robots are reported.

Reasoning about Goals in BDI Agents: the PRACTIONIST Framework

Self-conscious robotic system design process-from analysis to implementation

Developing robotic systems endowed with self-conscious capabilities means realizing complex sub-systems needing ad-hoc software engineering techniques for their modelling, analysis and implementation. In this chapter the whole process (from analysis to implementation) to model the development of self-conscious robotic systems is presented and the new created design process, PASSIC, supporting each part of it, is fully illustrated. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

A Notation for Modeling Jason-Like BDI Agents

The design and development of a large Multi Agent System (MAS) is a complex and difficult activity where a proper modeling notation may offer a significant contribution to the formulation of the best solution. The support provided by a specific CASE tool can significantly contribute to make the chosen approach technically valid and it is also a fundamental element of a feasible development strategy. The present work reports a UML profile and the related graphical notation for describing a MAS based on the Jason meta model. Moreover a specific CASE tool has been developed for supporting MASs design and automatic code generation. The proposed notation is shown in details using a classical exa…

A MAS metamodel-driven approach to process fragments selection

The construction of ad-hoc design processes is more and more required today. In this paper we present our approach for the construction of a new design process following the Situational Method Engineering paradigm. We mainly focus on the selection and assembly activities on the base of what we consider a key element in agent design processes: the MAS metamodel. The paper presents an algorithm establishing a priority order in the realization (instantiation) of MAS metamodel elements by the fragments that will compose the new process.

Gimt: A tool for ontology and goal modeling in BDI multi-agent design

Designing and developing BDI multi-agent systems would be facilitated by rising up the level of abstraction to use and by a methodological approach for managing it. To this aim it is common the integration of goal oriented analysis techniques with the design and implementation phases. In this fashion, our experience is that the use of an ontology in the early stages of the process is a great support for subsequent phases: goal modeling, agent design and implementation. However, we are aware that building and maintaining an ontology has to be supported by appropriate tools. This paper proposes GIMT (Goal Identification and Modeling Tool) as a further step towards the creation of a complete m…

A general theoretical framework for designing cognitive architectures: Hybrid and meta-level architectures for BICA

In this paper, we will discuss hybrid architectures in which different processing modules coexist and cooperate in a principled way. A fundamental and essential role is played by modules performing meta-computation, i.e., computation about computation itself. Meta-level architectures, therefore, become an essential complement of hybrid architectures for biologically inspired cognitive architectures (BICA). Engineering and modeling BICAs is a hard task due to the lack of techniques for developing and implementing their features. We propose a new concept of intelligent agent as a useful abstraction for developing BICAs and having means for representing all the involved entities together with …

Method fragments for agent design methodologies: from standardisation to research

The method engineering paradigm enables designers to reuse portions of design processes (called method fragments or chunks in literature) to build processes that are expressly tailored for realising a system that is specific for some problem or development context. This paper initially reports on the standardisation attempt carried out by the FIPA Methodology Technical Committee (TC) and then presents the research activities we did starting from that work; these resulted in a slightly different definition of some of the most important elements of the approach in order to support a multiview representation of the fragment (the views are process, reuse, storing and implementation). The paper …

Experiences with CiceRobot, a Museum Guide Cognitive Robot

The paper describes CiceRobot, a robot based on a cognitive architecture for robot vision and action. The aim of the architecture is to integrate visual perception and actions with knowledge representation, in order to let the robot to generate a deep inner understanding of its environment. The principled integration of perception, action and of symbolic knowledge is based on the introduction of an intermediate representation based on Gardenfors conceptual spaces. The architecture has been tested on a RWI B21 autonomous robot on tasks related with guided tours in the Archaeological Museum of Agrigento. Experimental results are presented.

The four types of self-adaptive systems: A metamodel

The basic ideas of self-adaptive systems are not a novelty in computer science. There are plenty of systems that are able of monitoring their operative context to take run-time decisions. However, more recently a new research discipline is trying to provide a common framework for collecting theory, methods, middlewares, algorithms and tools for engineering such software systems. The aim is to collect and classify existing approaches, coming from many different research areas. The objective of this work is providing a unified metamodel for describing the various categories of adaptation.

The IEEE-FIPA Standard on the Design Process Documentation Template

Nowadays, it is a matter of fact that a “one-size-fit-all” methodology or design process useful and fitting every kind of problem, situation, or design context does not exist. (Situational) Method Engineering (SME) discipline aims at determining techniques and tools for developing ad hoc design methodologies. SME mainly and highly focuses on the reuse of portion of existing design processes or methodologies (the method fragments). In order to have means for creating SME techniques and tools and for creating new design processes, some key elements are needed: a unique process metamodel for representing design processes and fragments, a proper template for the description of AO design process…

Introducing pattern reuse in the design of multi-agent systems

This paper focuses on design issues to be faced when developing knowledge management (KM) applications based on the integration of peer-to-peer and multi-agent technologies. The reasons for using these technologies rest on the requirements posed by the specific KM paradigm that has been adopted, which emphasizes aspects such as autonomy and distribution of knowledge sources. We adopt an agent-oriented approach that extends Tropos, a software engineering methodology introduced in earlier papers. We present a characterization of peer-to-peer in terms of a general architectural pattern, a set of design guidelines for peer-to-peer applications, and a framework that integrates multi-agent and pe…

The PASSI and Agile PASSI MAS Meta-models Compared with a Unifying Proposal

A great number of processes for multi-agent systems design have been presented in last years to support the different approaches to agent-oriented design; each process is specific for a particular class of problems and it instantiates a specific MAS meta-model. These differences produce inconsistences and overlaps: a MAS meta-model may define a term not referred by another, or the same term can be used with a different meaning. We think that the lack of a standardization may cause a significant delay to the diffusion of the agent paradigm outside research context. Working for this unification goal, it is also necessary to define in unambiguous way the terms of the agent model and their rela…

Agent-Oriented Software Patterns for Rapid and Affordable Robot Programming

Robotic systems are often quite complex to develop: they are huge, heavily constrained from the nonfunctional point of view and they implement challenging algorithms. The lack of integrated methods with reuse approaches leads robotic developers to reinvent the wheel each time a new project starts. This paper proposes to reuse the experience done when building robotic applications, by catching it into design patterns. These represent a general mean for (i) reusing proved solutions increasing the final quality, (ii) communicating the knowledge about a domain and (iii) reducing the development time and effort. Despite of this generality, the proposed repository of patterns is specific for mult…

How to engineer biologically inspired cognitive architectures

Biologically inspired cognitive architectures are complex systems where different modules of cognition interact in order to reach the global goals of the system in a changing environment. Engineering and modeling this kind of systems is a hard task due to the lack of techniques for developing and implementing features like learning, knowledge, experience, memory, adaptivity in an inter-modular fashion. We propose a new concept of intelligent agent as abstraction for developing biologically cognitive architectures. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.

A metrics suite for evaluating agent-oriented architectures

The Multi-agent Systems (MASs) paradigm continues to consolidate itself as a new branch of software engineering. Traditional software engineering strongly recommends to apply metrics in software developments. However, several research groups of experts in agent-oriented software engineering agree that classical software metrics and object-oriented metrics cannot directly measure the quality of MAS architectures. For this reason, this work proposes a suite of metrics to measure certain quality attributes of MAS architectures, considering agents and their organization. Most of these metrics are inspired by object-oriented metrics but they are adapted to agent-oriented concepts. Proposed metri…

A metamodelling-based approach for method fragment comparison

Several different approaches to Situational Method Engineering exist. They differ in terms of the primary element of the paradigm: the method fragment definition. Here, we introduce four method fragment definitions from the literature and compare their metamodels according to structural and functional criteria. The structural comparison showed a general alignment of some concepts that are sometimes referred with different names while the study of the compositional aspects results in evidence of substantial differences.

A Proposal of Process Fragment Definition and Documentation

This paper focuses on the field of Situational Method Engineering (SME) for the construction of agent-oriented design processes. Whatever SME approach a method designer wants to use, he has to manage two main elements: the (method or process) fragment and the repository where it is stored. Specific fragment definition and documentation are fundamental during these activities, for new process composition, and for the consequent system design activities. This paper aims at illustrating a proposal of fragment definition and documentation. This proposal is aimed to be an input for the IEEE FIPA Design Process Documentation and Fragmentation working group and, as regards our own research work, t…

An Expert System for the Design of Agents

The growing interest for the design and development of multi-agent systems has brought to the creation of a specific research area called Agent-Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE), specifically conceived for the development of complex systems. The development of such systems needs the support of appropriate tools that could help the designer in producing the design artefacts. We developed a tool called Metameth that may be used to define a new (agent-oriented) design process as well as to apply it. In this paper, we describe only a slice of this complex tool, specifically addressing the interaction with human actors (the designers). This subsystem is conceived as a collaborative multi-agen…

An organisational approach to engineer emergence within holarchies

An open issue in self-organisation is how to engineer emergent behaviours. This issue is also of interest for engineering holonic multi-agent systems as any level of a holarchy is dependant of the emergent behaviours of its sub-levels. In order to tackle this specific feature of holonic multi-agent systems, the capacity concept which abstracts a know-how from its concrete realisation is introduced. The use of this concept is illustrated in this paper through a case study using the ASPECS development process which enables the analysis, design, implementation and deployment of holonic multi-agent systems and integrates the capacity as a core concept of it is underlying metamodel, called capac…

Towards an approach for engineering complex systems: Agents and agility

The way in which we use and conceive modern software systems is changing. Humans/users are becoming more and more immersed in today complex systems operation, systems interact in a dynamic fashion with the users and with changing and dynamic environments. New design paradigms are necessary. In this paper we propose a first insight to engineering complex physical systems by employing agility and a framework for self- adaptive service composition.

FROM MODELING TO IMPLEMENTING THE PERCEPTION LOOP IN SELF-CONSCIOUS SYSTEMS

Engineering self-conscious robotic systems is a challenging issue because of the intrinsic complexity of such systems; a self-conscious robot has to acquire knowledge, to understand its world and to autonomously interact with its environment. In this paper, the externalist point of view is used for developing a complete process for the design and implementation of a conscious robotic system that is able to interact with a dynamic environment in a human-like fashion without possessing detailed knowledge about the environment and pre-programmed tasks and algorithms. The paper mainly focuses on the configuration part of the whole process that make the robot able to decide and to learn from exp…

Generating and Instantiating Abstract Workflows with QoS User Requirements

The growing availability of services accessible through the network makes it possible to build complex applications resulting from their composition that are usually characterized also by non-functional properties, known as Quality of Service (QoS). To exploit the full potential of service technology, automatic QoS-based composition of services is crucial. In this work a framework for automatic service composition is presented that relies on planning and service negotiation techniques for addressing both functional and non-functional requirements. The proposed approach allows for dynamic service composition and QoS attributes, and it can be applied when services are provided in the contest …