Multi-agent System Product Lines Research Articles

Automating the product derivation process of multi-agent systems product lines

Agent-oriented software engineering and software product lines are two promising software engineering techniques. Recent research work has been exploring their integration, namely multi-agent systems product lines (MAS-PLs), to promote reuse and variability management in the context of complex software systems. However, current product derivation approaches do not provide specific mechanisms to deal with MAS-PLs. This is essential because they typically encompass several concerns (e.g., trust, coordination, transaction, state persistence) that are constructed on the basis of heterogeneous technologies (e.g., object-oriented frameworks and platforms). In this paper, we propose the use of multi-level models to support the configuration knowledge specification and automatic product derivation of MAS-PLs. Our approach provides an agent-specific architecture model that uses abstractions and instantiation rules that are relevant to this application domain. In order to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach, we have implemented it as an extension of an existing product derivation tool, called GenArch. The approach has also been evaluated through the automatic instantiation of two MAS-PLs, demonstrating its potential and benefits to product derivation and configuration knowledge specification.

Developing multi-agent system product lines: from requirements to code

Many modern software systems have autonomous, open, context-aware and highly-interactive properties. The agent abstraction with its autonomous and pro-active characteristics and the related discipline of agent-oriented software engineering (AOSE) are promising paradigms to address these types of systems. Even though agents are frequently being adopted, little effort has been directed in AOSE methodologies toward extensive software reuse techniques, which can provide both reduced time-to-market and lower development costs. Multi-agent system product lines (MAS-PLs) are the result of the integration of AOSE with software product lines (SPLs). SPLs bring many reuse benefits to the agent domain through the exploitation of common characteristics among family members. In this context, this paper presents a domain engineering process for developing MAS-PLs. It defines activities and work products, whose purposes include supporting agent variability and providing agent feature traceability, both not addressed by current SPL and AOSE approaches.

Assessment of the Design Modularity and Stability of Multi-Agent System Product Lines

Assessment of the Design Modularity and Stability of Multi-Agent System Product Lines

Multi-agent system product lines

On the one hand, the field of software product lines (SPLs), as described in the articles in this section, covers all the software development life cycle necessary to develop a family of products where the derivation of concrete products is made systematically and rapidly [10]. On the other hand, agent-oriented software engineering (AOSE) is a new software engineering paradigm that arose to apply the best practices in the development of complex multi-agent systems (MASs) by focusing on the use of agents, and organizations (communities) of agents as the main abstractions [7]. Following a somewhat slow start, agent technology has begun to come into its own. With the advent of biologically inspired, pervasive, and autonomic computing, the advantages of, and necessity of, agent-based technologies and MASs has become obvious. Unfortunately, current AOSE methodologies are dedicated to developing single MASs. Clearly, many MASs will make use of significantly the same techniques, adaptations, and approaches. The field is thus ripe for exploiting the benefits of SPLs: reducing costs, improving time to market, and enhancing agent technology in such a way that it is more industrially applicable. We believe there is much that can be achieved by combining the two approaches: applying the SPL philosophy for building a MAS will afford all the advantages of SPLs and make MAS development more practical. Thus, our intent in this article is twofold: to stress the feasibility and benefits of what we call multi-agent systems product lines (MAS-PL) and demonstrate the main research challenges in the development of MAS-PLs.