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Aspectizing multi-agent systems: from architecture to implementation

Published: 01 January 2005 Publication History
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  • Abstract

    Agent architectures have to cope with a number of internal properties (concerns), such as autonomy, learning, and mobility. As the agent complexity increases, these agent properties crosscut each other and the agent’s basic functionality. In addition, multi-agent systems encompass multiple agent types with heterogeneous architectures. Each of these agent types has different properties, which need to be composed in different ways. In this context, the separation and the flexible composition of agent concerns are crucial for the construction of heterogeneous agent architectures. Moreover the separation of agent concerns needs to be guaranteed throughout the different development phases, especially from the architectural to the implementation phase. Existing approaches do not provide appropriate support for the modularization of agent properties at the architectural stage, and do not promote a smooth transition to the system implementation. This paper presents an aspect-oriented method that allows for a better separation of concerns, supporting the systematic aspectization of agent properties through the architectural definition, detailed design and implementation. A multi-agent system for paper reviewing management is assumed as a case study through this paper to show the applicability of our proposal.

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        Published In

        cover image Guide books
        Software Engineering for Multi-Agent Systems III: research Issues and Practical Applications
        January 2005
        289 pages
        ISBN:3540248439
        • Editors:
        • Ricardo Choren,
        • Alessandro Garcia,
        • Carlos Lucena,
        • Alexander Romanovsky

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        Springer-Verlag

        Berlin, Heidelberg

        Publication History

        Published: 01 January 2005

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        • (2008)On the modularity assessment of aspect-oriented multiagent architectures: a quantitative studyInternational Journal of Agent-Oriented Software Engineering10.1504/IJAOSE.2008.0167992:1(34-61)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2008
        • (2008)Research challenges in the tension between features and servicesProceedings of the 2nd international workshop on Systems development in SOA environments10.1145/1370916.1370930(53-58)Online publication date: 11-May-2008
        • (2007)Composing Structural Views in xADLProceedings of the 10th international conference on Early aspects: current challenges and future directions10.5555/1783274.1783284(115-138)Online publication date: 13-Mar-2007
        • (2006)Architecture-centric software development of situated multiagent systemsProceedings of the 7th international conference on Engineering societies in the agents world VII10.5555/1777725.1777730(62-85)Online publication date: 6-Sep-2006
        • (2006)A reference architecture for situated multiagent systemsProceedings of the 3rd international conference on Environments for multi-agent systems III10.5555/1759343.1759345(1-40)Online publication date: 8-May-2006
        • (2006)An aspect-oriented modeling framework for multi-agent systems designProceedings of the 7th international conference on Agent-oriented software engineering VII10.5555/1758463.1758467(35-50)Online publication date: 8-May-2006
        • (2006)DamonProceedings of the 6th international workshop on Software engineering and middleware10.1145/1210525.1210533(23-30)Online publication date: 10-Nov-2006

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