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Observed-MAS: An Ontology-Based Method for Analyzing Multi-Agent Systems Design Models

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Agent-Oriented Software Engineering VII (AOSE 2006)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 4405))

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Abstract

Agents are becoming a popular technology for the development of distributed, heterogeneous and always available systems. The application of agent technologies requires extensions to the existing object-oriented modeling languages to accommodate agent-related abstractions such as roles, organizations and environments. If it is difficult to analyze and establish the well-formedness of a set of diagrams of a UML-like object-oriented modeling language, it gets far more complex when the language is extended to add a set of agency related abstractions. In order to tame such complexity, we propose an ontology-based method for analyzing MAS specifications described using a modeling language that extends UML to accommodate the agency characteristics. The method proposes a two-phase approach that covers different sets of MAS design properties. These properties are the ones related to each individual diagram and the ones associated with pairs of diagrams. The later take into consideration the interdependencies between diagrams. The method also provides features that allow the suggestion of some design guidelines which may improve the MAS design quality.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Técnicas Inteligentes - PCS-POLI-USP, Av. Prof. Luciano Gualberto, trav. 3, 158, sala C2-50, São Paulo - 05508-900, Brazil

    Anarosa A. F. Brandão

  2. Departamento de Sistemas Informáticos y Programación, UCM, C/ Profesor José García Santesmases, s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid,  

    Viviane Torres da Silva

  3. Computer Science Department, PUC-Rio, R. Marquês de São Vicente, 225, Rio de Janeiro - 22453-900, Brazil

    Carlos J. P. de Lucena

Authors
  1. Anarosa A. F. Brandão
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  2. Viviane Torres da Silva
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  3. Carlos J. P. de Lucena
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Lin Padgham Franco Zambonelli

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© 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Brandão, A.A.F., da Silva, V.T., de Lucena, C.J.P. (2007). Observed-MAS: An Ontology-Based Method for Analyzing Multi-Agent Systems Design Models. In: Padgham, L., Zambonelli, F. (eds) Agent-Oriented Software Engineering VII. AOSE 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4405. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-70945-9_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-70945-9_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-70944-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-70945-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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