Abstract
We propose a preliminary methodology for agent-oriented software engineering based on the idea of agent interaction analysis. This approach uses interactions between undetermined agents as the primary component of analysis and design. Agents as a basis for software engineering are useful because they provide a powerful and intuitive abstraction which can increase the comprehensiblity of a complex design. The paper describes a process by which the designer can derive the interactions that can occur in a system satisfying the given requirements and use them to design the structure of an agent-based system, including the identification of the agents themselves. We suggest that this approach has the flexibility necessary to provide agent-oriented designs for open and complex applications, and has value for future maintenance and extension of these systems.
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.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
D. Amyot, L. Logrippo, R. J. A. Buhr, and T. Gray. Use Case Maps for the capture and validation of distributed systems requirements. In Fourth International Symposium on Requirements Engineering (RE-99), 1999.
Y. Aridor and D. B. Lange. Agent design patterns: Elements of agent application design. In Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Autonomous Agents (Agents-98), Minneapolis, USA, 1998.
M. Barbuceanu. Coordinating agents by role based social constraints and conversion plans. In Proceedings of the Fourteenth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-97), pages 16–21, 1997.
B. Bauer, J. P. Müller, and J. Odell. Agent uml: A formalism for specifying multiagent software systems. In this volume.
A. M. Davis. Software Requirements: Objects, States and Functions. Prentice Hall, 1993.
K. S. Decker and V. R. Lesser. Designing a family of coordination algorithms. In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems (ICMAS-95), pages 73–80, 1995.
S. A. DeLoach and M. Wood. Developing multiagent systems with agenttool. In Proceedings of the Seventh International Workshop on Agent Theories, Architectures and Languages (ATAL-00), 2000.
R. Depke, R. Heckel, and J. M. Küster. Requirement specification and design of agent-based systems with graph transformation, roles and uml. In this volume.
Elammari, M. and Lalonde, W. An agent-oriented methodology: High-level and intermediate models. In Proceedings of Agent-Oriented Information Systems 1999 (AOIS-99), 1999.
S. Franklin and A. Graesser. Is it an agent, or just a program?: A taxonomy for autonomous agents. In J.P. Müller, M. J. Wooldridge, and N. R. Jennings, editors, Intelligent Agents III: Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Agent Theories, Architectures and Languages (ATAL-96), pages 21–35. Springer-Verlag, 1997.
C. V. Goldman and J. S. Rosenschein. Mutual adaptation enhanced by social laws. Technical Report CS98-5, The Hebrew University, Israel, 1998.
M. N. Huhns. Interaction-oriented programming. In this volume.
C. A. Iglesias, M. Garijo, and J. C. Gonzalez. A survey of agent-oriented methodologies. In J. P. Müller, M. P. Singh, and A. S. Rao, editors, Intelligent Agents V: Proceedings of the Fifth International Workshop on Agent Theories, Architectures and Languages (ATAL-98), 1998.
N. R. Jennings. Commitments and conventions: The foundation of coordination in multiagent systems. Knowledge Engineering Review, 8(3):223–250, 1993.
N. R. Jennings, K. Sycara, and M. Wooldridge. A roadmap of agent research and development. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 1(1):275–306, 1998.
E. A. Kendall. Agent software engineering with role modelling. In this volume.
E. A. Kendall. Role modelling for agent system analysis and design. In Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Agent Systems and Applications (ASA/MA’99), November 1999.
D. Kinny, M. Georgeff, and A. Rao. A methodology and modelling technique for systems of BDI agents. In Walter Van de Velde and J. W. Perram, editors, Agents Breaking Away: Proceedings of the Seventh European Workshop on Modelling Autonomous Agents in a Multi-Agent World (MAAMAW-96), January 1996.
C. Landauer and K. Bellman. Agent-based information infrastructure. In Proceedings of Agent-Oriented Information Systems 1999 (AOIS-99), 1999.
M. Luck and M. d'Inverno. Engagement and cooperation in motivated agent modelling. In C. Zhang and D. Lukose, editors, Distributed Artificial Intelligence Architecture and Modelling: Proceedings of the First Australian DAI Workshop, pages 70–84. Springer-Verlag, 1996.
S. P. Marsh. Formalising Trust as a Computational Concept. PhD thesis, Department of Computing Science and Mathematics, University of Stirling, 1994.
J. Odell, H. V. D. Parunak, and B. Bauer. Representing agent interaction protocols in uml. In this volume.
A. Omicini. Soda: Societies and infrastructures in the analysis and design of agent-based systems. In this volume.
I. Sommerville. Software Engineering. Addison-Wesley, fifth edition edition, 1995.
M. Wood and S. A. DeLoach. An overview of the multiagent system engineering methodology. In this volume.
M. Wooldridge, N. R. Jennings, and D. Kinny. A methodology for agent-oriented analysis and design. In Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Autonomous Agents (Agents-99), Seattle, USA, 1999.
M. Wooldridge, N. R. Jennings, and D. Kinny. The Gaia methodology for agent-oriented analysis and design. Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 3, 2000.
L. Yu and B. F. Schmid. A conceptual framework for agent oriented and role based workflow modeling. In Proceedings of Agent-Oriented Information Systems 1999 (AOIS-99), 1999.
F. Zambonelli, N. R. Jennings, and M. Wooldridge. Organisational abstractions for the analysis and design of multi-agent systems. In this volume.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Miles, S., Joy, M., Luck, M. (2001). Designing Agent-Oriented Systems by Analysing Agent Interactions. In: Ciancarini, P., Wooldridge, M.J. (eds) Agent-Oriented Software Engineering. AOSE 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1957. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44564-1_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44564-1_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-41594-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-44564-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive