Multi-agent Domain Engineering Research Articles

An ontology-based technique for the specification of domain and user models in multi-agent domain


 
 
 Because of its facilities for the generalization and specialization of concepts and the unambiguous terminology they provide, ontologies are being used for the representation of reusable software artifacts. This work describes GRAMO, an ontology-based technique for the specification of domain and user models in Multi-Agent Domain Engineering. ONTODUM, an ontology-based tool supporting GRAMO is also introduced. ONTODUM represents the knowledge of GRAMO. Some case studies developed to evaluate GRAMO are also briefly described.
 
 

The Specification of Requirements in the MADAE-Pro Software Process

MADAE-Pro is an ontology-driven process for multi-agent domain and application engineering which promotes the construction and reuse of agent-oriented applications families. This article introduces MADAE-Pro, emphasizing the description of its domain analysis and application requirements engineering phases and showing how software artifacts produced from the first are reused in the last one. Illustrating examples are extracted from two case studies we have conducted to evaluate MADAE-Pro. The first case study assesses the Multi-Agent Domain Engineering sub-process of MADAE-Pro through the development of a multi-agent system family of recommender systems supporting alternative (collaborative, content-based and hybrid) filtering techniques. The second one, evaluates the Multi-Agent Application Engineering sub-process of MADAE-Pro through the construction of InfoTrib, a Tax Law recommender system which provides recommendations based on new tax law information items using a content-based filtering technique. ONTOSERS and InfoTrib were modeled using ONTORMAS, a knowledge-based tool for supporting and automating the tasks of MADAEPro.

A knowledge-based tool for multi-agent domain engineering

Ontologies provide an unambiguous terminology that can be shared by all involved in a software development process. They can also be as generic as needed allowing its reuse and easy extension. These features turn ontologies useful for representing the knowledge of software engineering techniques and methodologies, and an appropriate abstraction mechanism for the specification of high-level reusable software artifacts like domain models, frameworks and software patterns. This work describes ONTOMADEM, a conceptualization of MADEM (“multi-agent domain engineering methodology”), a software development methodology for multi-agent domain Engineering. The ontology is used as a knowledge-based tool for capturing and representing the products of a multi-agent domain engineering process, created through the instantiation of its hierarchy of classes.

A domain model of Web recommender systems based on usage mining and collaborative filtering

Considering the increasing demand of multi-agent systems, the practice of software reuse is essential to the development of such systems. Multi-agent domain engineering is a process for the construction of domain-specific agent-based reusable software artifacts, like domain models, representing the requirements of a family of multi-agent systems in a domain, and frameworks, implementing reusable agent-based design solutions to those requirements. This article describes the domain modeling tasks of the MADEM methodology and a case study on the application of GRAMO, a MADEM technique, for the construction of the domain model of ONTOWUM, specifying the common and variable requirements of a family of Web recommender systems based on usage mining and collaborative filtering.

A system of agent-based software patterns for user modeling based on usage mining

In adaptive hypermedia systems, a user can select explicitly an adaptation effect or he/she can leave the system execute some of these functions. An important component of an adaptive system is the ability to model the users of the system according to their goals and preferences. Web usage mining aims at discover interesting patterns of use by analyzing Web usage data. This information can be used to capture implicitly user models and used them for the adaptation of systems. User modeling and system adaptability can be approached through the agent paradigm. This article summarizes a system of architectural and detailed design patterns describing known agent-based solutions to recurrent problems of user modeling based on usage mining along with the description of a general purpose problem-solving architectural pattern used by some of the first ones. Patterns are derived from recurrent designs of specific agent-based applications. The proposed patterns are being developed in the context of a Multi-Agent Domain Engineering research project, which approaches software complexity and productivity through the construction of techniques and tools promoting software reuse in Multi-Agent Domain Engineering.