Abstract
In this paper we present the AgentComponent (AC) approach under formal aspects. A multi agent system (MAS) is composed of AC instances, where each AC instance consists of a knowledge base, storing the beliefs, of slots, storing the communication partners, of a set of ontologies, and of so-called ProcessComponents (PC) representing the behaviours of an AC instance. An AC is a generic component that can be reused (instantiated ACs) and parametrized by customizing the communication partners (slots), the ontologies, the knowledge and the behaviours of an AC instance. The focus of this paper is to introduce the basic AC approach and to define a formal specification using the Object Constraint Language (OCL) for this approach. In the first part we present an informal description of the AC approach and show how to construct a component-based MAS by a simple example. The second part of this paper presents a metamodel for the AC approach and provides a formal specification for the services of the generic AC.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
agentTool Website, http://www.cis.ksu.edu/~sdeloach/ai/agentool.htm
AGIL Website, http://www1.faw.uni-ulm.de/kbeans/agil/
D’Souza, D.F., Wills, A.C.: Objects, Components and Frameworks With UML. Addison-Wesley, Reading (1999)
FIPA-OS Website, http://www.emorphia.com/research/about.htm
Brazier, F.M.T., Jonker, C., Treur, J.: Principles of Component-Based Design of Intelligent Agents. Data and Knowledge Engineering 41, 1–28 (1998)
Lind, J.: Relating Agent Technology and Component Models (2001)
Wooldridge, M., Ciancarini, P.: Agent-Oriented Software Engineering: The State of the Art. Agent-Oriented Software Engineering. Springer-Verlag Lecture Notes, vol. 1957 (2001)
Jennings, N.R., et al.: Agent-Based Business Process Management. ACM SIGMOD Record 27, 32–39 (1998)
Object Constraint Language Specification, http://www.cvc.uab.es/shared/teach/a21291/apunts/OCL/apunts/OCL-Specifi%cation.pdf
Meier, P.: Visual Construction of Multi-Agent-Systems according to the AgentComponent Approach and the RDT Concept, Technical Report, http://www.pst.informatik.uni-muenchen.de/publications/agentcomponenttool.pdf
Meier, P., Wirsing, M.: Implementation Patterns for Visual Construction of Multi-Agent-Systems, Technical Report, http://www.pst.informatik.uni-muenchen.de/publications/acpatterns.pdf
Zeus Website, http://193.113.209.147/projects/agents.htm
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Meier, P., Wirsing, M. (2004). Towards a Formal Specification for the AgentComponent. In: Ryan, M.D., Meyer, JJ.C., Ehrich, HD. (eds) Objects, Agents, and Features. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2975. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-25930-5_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-25930-5_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-21989-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-25930-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive