Skip to main content

The Construction of Multi-agent Systems as an Engineering Discipline

  • Conference paper
Engineering Societies in the Agents World VII (ESAW 2006)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 4457))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

The construction of multi-agent systems is starting to become a main issue in agent research. Using the Computer Science point of view, the development of agent systems has been considered mainly a problem of elaborating theories, constructing programming languages implementing them, or formally defining agent architectures. This effort has allowed important advances, including a growing independence of Artificial Intelligence. The results have the potential to become a new paradigm, the agent paradigm. However, the acceptance of this paradigm requires its application in real industrial developments. This paper uses this need of addressing real developments to justify the use of software engineering as driving force in agent research. The paper argues that only by means of software engineering, a complex development can be completed successfully.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Jennings, N.: On agent-based software engineering. Artificial Intelligence 117(2), 277–296 (2000)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. Dastani, M., Gomez-Sanz, J.J.: Programming multi-agent systems. The Knowledge Engineering Review 20(02), 151–164 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Naur, P., Randell, B. (eds.): Software Engineering: report on a conference sponsored by the nato science committee, Garmisch, Germany, NATO Science Committee (1968)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Dijkstra, E.: The humble programmer. Communications of the ACM 15(10), 859–866 (1972)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Dijkstra, E.: Goto statement considered harmful. Communications of the ACM 11(3), 147–148 (1968)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  6. DeRemer, F., Kron, H.: Programming-in-the large versus programming-in-the-small. In: Proceedings of the international conference on Reliable software, pp. 114–121. ACM Press, New York (1975)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  7. Winograd, T.: Beyond programming languages. Communications of the ACM 22(7), 391–401 (1979)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Brooks, F.: The mythical man-month: essays on software engineering. Addison-Wesley, London, UK (1982)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Parnas, D.: Software engineering programmes are not computer science programmes. Annals of Software Engineering 6(1), 19–37 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Diaz-Herrera, J.L., Hilburn, T.B.: SE 2004 - Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Software Engineering. In: The Joint Task Force on Computing Curricula IEEE Computer Society Association for Computing Machinery, IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Newell, A.: The knowledge level. Artificial Intelligence 18, 87–127 (1982)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Russell, S., Norvig, P.: Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  13. MacCarthy, J.: Lisp 1.5 Programmer’s Manual. MIT Press, Cambridge (1965)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Roussel, P.: PROLOG: Manuel de reference et d’utilisation. Université d’Aix-Marseille II (1975)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Shoham, Y.: Agent-Oriented Programming. Artificial Intelligence 60(1), 51–92 (1993)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  16. Bordini, R., Hübner, J., Vieira, R.: Jason and the Golden Fleece of Agent-Oriented Programming. In: Multi-Agent Programming. Multiagent Systems, Artificial Societies, and Simulated Organizations, vol. 15, pp. 3–37. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  17. Rao, A.S.: AgentSpeak (L): BDI agents speak out in a logical computational language. In: Perram, J., Van de Velde, W. (eds.) MAAMAW 1996. LNCS, vol. 1038, pp. 42–55. Springer, Heidelberg (1996)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  18. Hindriks, K., Boer, F.D., der Hoek, W.V., Meyer, J.: Agent Programming in 3APL. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 2(4), 357–401 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Ross, R.J., Collier, R.W., O’Hare, G.M.P.: Af-apl - bridging principles and practice in agent oriented languages. In: Bordini, R.H., Dastani, M., Dix, J., Seghrouchni, A.E.F. (eds.) Programming Multi-Agent Systems. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 3346, pp. 66–88. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Fallah-Seghrouchni, A.E., Suna, A.: CLAIM: A Computational Language for Autonomous, Intelligent and Mobile Agents. In: Dastani, M., Dix, J., El Fallah-Seghrouchni, A. (eds.) PROMAS 2003. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 3067, pp. 90–110. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Shapiro, S., Lesperance, Y., Levesque, H.: Specifying communicative multi-agent systems with ConGolog. In: Working Notes of the AAAI Fall 1997 Symposium on Communicative Action in Humans and Machines, vol. 1037, pp. 72–82 (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Thielscher, M.: FLUX: A logic programming method for reasoning agents. Theory and Practice of Logic Programming 5(4-5), 533–565 (2005)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  23. Bordini, R., Braubach, L., Dastani, M., Seghrouchni, A.E.F., Gomez-Sanz, J., Leite, J., O’Hare, G., Pokahr, A., Ricci, A.: A Survey of Programming Languages and Platforms for Multi-Agent Systems. Informatica 30(1), 33–44 (2006)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  24. Mascardi, V., Martelli, M., Sterling, L.: Logic-based specification languages for intelligent software agents. Theory and Practice of Logic Programming Journal (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Bordini, R.H., Dastani, M., Dix, J., Seghrouchni, A.E.F. (eds.): Multi-Agent Programming. Multiagent Systems, Artificial Societies, and Simulated Organizations, vol. 15. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  26. Hillard, R.: Recommended practice for architectural description of software-intensive systems. Technical report, IEEE (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Hayes-Roth, B., Pfleger, K., Lalanda, P., Morignot, P., Balabanovic, M.: A domain-specific software architecture for adaptive intelligent systems. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 21(4), 288–301 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Bratman, M.E., Israel, D.J., Pollack, M.: Plans and resource-bounded practical reasoning. Computational Intelligence Journal 4(4), 349–355 (1988)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Jennings, N.R., Wittig, T.: ARCHON: Theory and Practice. In: Distributed Artificial Intelligence: Theory and Praxis. Eurocourses: Computer and Information Science, vol. 5, Springer, Heidelberg (1992)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Müller, J., Pischel, M.: The Agent Architecture InteRRaP: Concept and Application. PhD thesis, Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Ferguson, I.: Touring Machines: An architecture for Dynamic, Rational Agents. PhD thesis, Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Cambridge, UK (1992)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Brazier, F., Dunin-Keplicz, B., Jennings, N., Treur, J.: DESIRE: Modelling Multi-Agent Systems in a Compositional Formal Framework. International Journal of Cooperative Information Systems 6(1), 67–94 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Brazier, F., Treur, J., Wijngaards, N., Willems, M.: Temporal semantics of complex reasoning tasks. In: Proceedings of the 10th Banff Knowledge Acquisition for Knowledge-based Systems workshop, vol. 96, pp. 1–15 (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Cornelissen, F., Jonker, C., Treur, J.: Compositional Verification of Knowledge-based Systems: a Case Study for Diagnostic Reasoning. In: Plaza, E. (ed.) EKAW 1997. LNCS, vol. 1319, pp. 65–80. Springer, Heidelberg (1997)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  35. Wooldridge, M., Jennings, N.: Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages: A Survey. Intelligent Agents 22 (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Wooldridge, M., Jennings, N.R.: Intelligent agents: Theory and practice. Knowledge Engineering Review 10(2), 115–152 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Bellifemine, F., Poggi, A., Rimassa, G.: Jade: a fipa2000 compliant agent development environment. In: AGENTS 2001. Proceedings of the fifth international conference on Autonomous agents, pp. 216–217. ACM Press, New York (2001)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  38. Nwana, H.: Zeus: A Toolkit for Building Distributed Multi-agent Systems. Applied Artificial Intelligence 13(1), 129–185 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Demazeau, Y.: From interactions to collective behaviour in agent-based systems. In: Proceedings of the 1st. European Conference on Cognitive Science.

    Google Scholar 

  40. Kinny, D., Georgeff, M., Rao, A.: A methodology and modelling technique for systems of BDI agents. In: Perram, J., Van de Velde, W. (eds.) MAAMAW 1996. LNCS, vol. 1038, pp. 56–71. Springer, Heidelberg (1996)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  41. Caire, G., Coulier, W., Garijo, F.J., Gomez, J., Pavón, J., Leal, F., Chainho, P., Kearney, P.E., Stark, J., Evans, R., Massonet, P.: Agent oriented analysis using message/uml. In: Wooldridge, M.J., Weiß, G., Ciancarini, P. (eds.) AOSE 2001. LNCS, vol. 2222, pp. 119–135. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  42. Evans, R., Kearney, P., Caire, G., Garijo, F., Gomez-Sanz, J.J., Pavon, J., Leal, F., Chainho, P., Massonet, P.: Message: Methodology for engineering systems of software agents (September 2001), http://www.eurescom.de/~pub-deliverables/p900-series/P907/TI1/p907ti1.pdf

  43. Henderson-Sellers, B., Giorgini, P.: Agent-oriented methodologies. Idea Group Pub., USA (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  44. Luck, M., McBurney, P., Shehory, O., Willmott, S.: Agent Technology: Computing as Interaction (A Roadmap for Agent Based Computing). AgentLink (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  45. Zambonelli, F., Omicini, A.: Challenges and Research Directions in Agent-Oriented Software Engineering. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 9(3), 253–283 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Luck, M., McBurney, P., Preist, C.: A Manifesto for Agent Technology: Towards Next Generation Computing. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 9(3), 203–252 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Myers, G., Sandler, C., Thomas, T.M., Badgett, T.: The Art of Software Testing. John Wiley and Sons, West Sussex, England (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  48. Gomez-Sanz, J., Pavon, J., Garijo, F.: Estimating Costs for Agent Oriented Software. In: Müller, J.P., Zambonelli, F. (eds.) AOSE 2005. LNCS, vol. 3950, pp. 218–230. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  49. Bernon, C., Cossentino, M., Pavon, J.: Agent-oriented software engineering. The Knowledge Engineering Review 20(02), 99–116 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. Gonzalez-Perez, C., McBride, T., Henderson-Sellers, B.: A Metamodel for Assessable Software Development Methodologies. Software Quality Journal 13(2), 195–214 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Henderson-Sellers, B.: Creating a Comprehensive Agent-Oriented Methodology: Using Method Engineering and the OPEN Metamodel. In: Agent-Oriented Methodologies, pp. 368–397. Idea Group, USA (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  52. Cernuzzi, L., Cossentino, M., Zambonelli, F.: Process models for agent-based development. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence 18(2), 205–222 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  53. Botía, J.A., Hernansaez, J.M., Skarmeta, F.G.: Towards an approach for debugging mas through the analysis of acl messages. In: Lindemann, G., Denzinger, J., Timm, I.J., Unland, R. (eds.) MATES 2004. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 3187, pp. 301–312. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  54. Lam, D.N., Barber, K.S.: Comprehending agent software. In: Proceedings of the fourth international joint conference on Autonomous agents and multiagent systems, pp. 586–593. ACM Press, New York (2005)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  55. DeLoach, S., Wood, M.F.: Developing multiagent systems with agenttool. In: Castelfranchi, C., Lespérance, Y. (eds.) ATAL 2000. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 1986, pp. 46–60. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  56. Pavon, J., Gomez-Sanz, J.J., Fuentes, R.: The INGENIAS Methodology and Tools. In: Agent-Oriented Methodologies, pp. 236–276. Idea Group Publishing, USA (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  57. Bourque, P., Dupuis, R., Abran, A., Moore, J., Tripp, L.: The guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge. Software 16(6), 35–44 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  58. Gomez-Sanz, J.J., Gervais, M.P., Weiss, G.: A Survey on Agent-Oriented Software Engineering Research. In: Methodologies and Software Engineering for Agent Systems, pp. 33–62. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht (2004)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Gregory M. P. O’Hare Alessandro Ricci Michael J. O’Grady Oğuz Dikenelli

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Gomez-Sanz, J.J. (2007). The Construction of Multi-agent Systems as an Engineering Discipline. In: O’Hare, G.M.P., Ricci, A., O’Grady, M.J., Dikenelli, O. (eds) Engineering Societies in the Agents World VII. ESAW 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 4457. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-75524-1_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-75524-1_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-75522-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-75524-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics