THE GAIA2JADE PROCESS FOR MULTI-AGENT SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT

In this paper we present the Gaia2JADE process concerning how one can implement a multi-agent system with the JADE framework using the Gaia methodology for analysis and design purposes. This process is particularly dedicated to the conversion of Gaia models to JADE code. It is described using the Software Process Engineering Metamodel (SPEM) and extends the one proposed by FIPA for describing the Gaia modeling process. Thus, it proposes to potential MAS developers a process that covers the full software development lifecycle. This work is based on the experience we have acquired by applying this process for implementing a real-word multi-agent system conceived for providing e-services to mobile users. With this paper, we share this experience with future multi-agent systems (MAS) developers, who would like to follow this process, taking into account several technical issues that emerged during the implementation phase, helping them to easily model and implement their systems.     

MASCF: A generic process-centered methodological framework for analysis and design of multi-agent supply chain systems

Multi-agent systems (MAS) are becoming popular for modeling complex systems such as supply chains. However, development of multi-agent systems remain quite involved and extremely time consuming. Currently, there exist no generic methodologies for modeling supply chains using multi-agent systems. In this research, we propose a generic process-centered methodological framework, Multi-Agent Supply Chain Framework (MASCF), to simplify MAS development for supply chain (SC) applications. MASCF introduces the notion of process-centered organization metaphor, and creatively adopts Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model to a well-structured generic MAS analysis and design methodology, Gaia, for multi-agent supply chain system (MASCS) development. The popular Tamagotchi case was designed and analyzed using MASCF. The validity of the framework was established by implementing MASCF output of Tamagotchi SC using the Java Agent DEvelopment Framework (JADE).     

多主体系统的组织结构建模方法

组织结构是指从组织的观点来描述的多主体系统的全局体系结构，是多主体系统建模的一个重要方面。本文在已有的面向主体软件开发方法Gaia的基础上提出了一个组织结构建模方法Gaia2S以及可视化建模语言OrgS，并通过一个典型的电子商务案例详细说明了如何使用OrgS和Gaia2S对多主体系统的组织结构进行分析和建模。     

MOBMAS: A methodology for ontology-based multi-agent systems development

Ontologies offer significant benefits to multi-agent systems: interoperability, reusability, support for multi-agent system (MAS) development activities (such as system analysis and agent knowledge modeling) and support for MAS operation (such as agent communication and reasoning). This paper presents an ontology-based methodology, MOBMAS, for the analysis and design of multi-agent systems. MOBMAS is the first methodology that explicitly identifies and implements the various ways in which ontologies can be used in the MAS development process and integrated into the MAS model definitions. In this paper, we present comprehensive documentation and validation of MOBMAS.     

Decentralised Formation Control and Stability Analysis for Multi-vehicle Cooperative Manoeuvre

Multi-vehicle cooperative formation control problem is an important and typical topic of research on multi-agent system. This paper presents a formation stability conjecture to conceive a new methodology for solving the decentralised multivehicle formation control problem. It employs the "extensiondecomposition-aggregation" scheme to transform the complex multi-agent control problem into a group of sub-problems which is able to be solved conveniently. Based on this methodology, it is proved that if all the individual augmented subsystems can be stabilised by using any approach, the overall formation system is not only asymptotically but also exponentially stable in the sense of Lyapunov within a neighbourhood of the desired formation. Simulation study on 6-DOF aerial vehicles (Aerosonde UAVs) has been performed to verify the achieved formation stability result. The proposed multi-vehicle formation control strategy can be conveniently extended to other cooperative control problems of multi-agent systems.      

Applying Gaia and AUML for the development of multiagent‐based control software for flexible manufacturing systems: addressing methodological and implementation issues

In this article, we present the development of a simple multiagent‐based system for the control of a flexible manufacturing system. We followed the stages of a methodology specially conceived for the development of agent‐based system, which is an integration of the classical methodology for agent‐oriented analysis and design Gaia, and AUML (Agent‐Unified Modeling Language). We adopted as study case the CIMUBB Laboratory at the University of Bio‐Bio, which has a flexible manufacturing system including three flexible manufacturing cells interconnected by a conveyor belt. In the analysis stage, we identified roles involved, and we design models representing roles and protocols. In the design stage, we applied Gaia agent, services, and acquaintance models from Gaia, and we complemented with AUML as the adopted methodology suggests. With the developed models, we constructed a fully functional system where each agent was built as an independent process tree. Agents communicate by passing messages through the Ethernet network with socket interfaces. Various tests executed in our laboratory scale manufacturing system show the effectiveness of our implementation. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于Agent的智能采购系统的建模研究

以某制造企业信息管理系统的采购系统为例,使用面向Agent的软件工程方法———Gaia方法详细分析了其智能采购系统,建立了智能采购系统的分析模型和设计模型,并使用Agent开发工具OpenCybele进行了系统实现的尝试。     

面向主体的开发方法和可视化建模工具

1 引言主体(Agent)特别是多主体系统(MAS-Multi Agent Sys-tem)的理论和技术以主体的概念为核心,为分布式系统的分析、设计和实现提供了一个崭新的途径。当前,面向主体的技术作为一种设计和开发软件系统的新方法已经得到了学术界和企业界的广泛关注。面向主体的技术要想取得成功的应用,工程化的面向主体的开发方法和相应的辅助开发工具是十分关键的。这不仅能保证建造的系统是可靠的和易于维护的,还使得系统的设计和实现可以由广大的软件开发人员进行,而     

Controllability of heterogeneous multi-agent systems under directed and weighted topology

This paper considers the controllability problem for both continuous- and discrete-time linear heterogeneous multi-agent systems with directed and weighted communication topology. First, two kinds of neighbour-based control protocols based on the distributed protocol of first-order and second-order multi-agent systems are proposed, under which it is shown that a heterogeneous multi-agent system is controllable if the underlying communication topology is controllable. Then, under special leader selection, the result shows that the controllability of a heterogeneous multi-agent system is solely decided by its communication topology graph. Furthermore, some necessary and/or sufficient conditions are derived for controllability of communication topology from algebraic and graphical perspectives. Finally, simulation examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.     

Model-driven engineering techniques for the development of multi-agent systems

Model-driven engineering (MDE), implicitly based upon meta-model principles, is gaining more and more attention in software systems due to its inherent benefits. Its use normally improves the quality of the developed systems in terms of productivity, portability, inter-operability and maintenance. Therefore, its exploitation for the development of multi-agent systems (MAS) emerges in a natural way. In this paper, agent-oriented software development (AOSD) and MDE paradigms are fully integrated for the development of MAS. Meta-modeling techniques are explicitly used to speed up several phases of the process. The Prometheus methodology is used for the purpose of validating the proposal. The meta-object facility (MOF) architecture is used as a guideline for developing a MAS editor according to the language provided by Prometheus methodology. Firstly, an Ecore meta-model for Prometheus language is developed. Ecore is a powerful tool for designing model-driven architectures (MDA). Next, facilities provided by the Graphical Modeling Framework (GMF) are used to generate the graphical editor. It offers support to develop agent models conform to the meta-model specified. Afterwards, it is also described how an agent code generator can be developed. In this way, code is automatically generated using as input the model specified with the graphical editor. A case of study validates the method put in practice for the development of a multi-agent surveillance system.