A systematic method for building Internet of Agents applications based on the Linked Open Data approach

Abstract

The Internet of Agents (IoA) is an emerging paradigm whose objective is to mitigate the deficiencies of devices of Internet of Things (IoT) in terms of reasoning and social capabilities, in order to improve proactivity, intelligence and interoperability. This paper presents the guidelines to develop IoA applications based on described semantic agents following the Linked Open Data (LOD) approach and the specifications of the IoA-OWL ontology—a specialized full ontology that formally defines the main aspects related to a novel approach such as IoA. These guidelines have been drawn up via a systematic method created from the best practices of Agile Software Development Methodologies. This method creates smart, autonomous, collaborative IoA applications based on novel Linked Open Agents (LOAs) that are driven by Linked-Agent Contracts (LACs) and Workflows for Agent Control (WACs). From a practical perspective, our method separates the modeling of components using two levels, microscopic (at agent level) and macroscopic (at agent society level) facilitated the planning, configuring and implementation of each agent in the IoA ecosystem. Moreover, the method facilitates the agent creation automation process, reducing the time required for its development and simplifying the design complexity. These achievements were demonstrated through the modeling of an Ambient Intelligence (AmI) scenario on an office composed by a set of collaborative agents in order to provide smart comfort.