Environment in agent-oriented software engineering methodologies

Issue title: Engineering Environments in Multiagent Systems

Guest editors: Danny Weyns and Andrea Omicini

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Molesini, Ambra^{a; *} | Omicini, Andrea^b | Viroli, Mirko^b

Affiliations: [a] Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna, viale Risorgimento 2, 40136 Bologna, Italy | [b] Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna a Cesena via Venezia 52, 47023 Cesena, Italy

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 051 2093541; Fax: +39 051 2093073; E-mail: ambra.molesini@unibo.it

Abstract: The key role of environment as a first-class abstraction in the engineering of MAS (multi-agent systems) is today generally acknowledged in the MAS community. However, the support for the notion of environment in today AOSE (agent-oriented software engineering) methodologies is still either absent, weak, or incomplete at best. In this paper we first review, classify, and compare existing AOSE methodologies according to their support for the notion of MAS environment. Then we suggest a general approach for extending existing AOSE methodologies toward full environment support.

Keywords: Environment, agent-oriented software engineering, agent-oriented methodology, environment abstraction, topological abstraction, artifact, workspace

DOI: 10.3233/MGS-2009-0118

Journal: Multiagent and Grid Systems , vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 37-57, 2009