Abstract: Process calculi are mathematical tools used for modeling and analyzing the structure and behavior of reactive systems. One such calculus, called APi-calculus (an extension to Pi-calculus), provides extensive support for modeling migration, intelligence, natural grouping and security in agent-based systems [18]. In this article, a visualization tool for APi-calculus is proposed. Although an invaluable formal method for mobile agent systems, APi-calculus is quite complex (as are other calculi) and not very well suited to working with practical applications by itself. Due to the dynamic nature of mobile agents, a graphical program based on the mathematics of the calculus would enhance the use of the calculus and its attraction to the mobile agents industry. The ability to provide instant demonstration of a designed system to the user and the support for verification and validation of such systems specified by the calculus would prove to be a great asset for APi-calculus as well as agents-based computing in general. This paper presents ACVisualizer, a visualization software for APi-calculus, which provides such high level support for modeling mobile agent systems. Due to the backward compatibility of APi-calculus with Pi-calculus, ACVisualizer can easily be adapted to work with Pi-calculus itself.
Keywords: Process calculi, software agents, system modeling, agent-oriented software engineering, modeling and analysis
