Infrastructure Support for Agent-Based Development (original) (raw)

Towards a layered approach for agent infrastructure: the right tools for the right job

2001

ABSTRACT It is clear by now that the take-up of agent technologies and the wide use of such technologies in open environments depends on the provision of appropriate infrastructure to support the rapid development of applications. In this paper, we argue that the elements required for the development of infrastructure span three different fields, which, nevertheless, have a great degree of overlap.

From definition to deployment: What next for agent-based systems?

The Knowledge Engineering Review, 1999

The rapid development of the field of agent-based systems offers a new and exciting paradigm for the development of sophisticated programs in dynamic and open environments, particularly in distributed domains such as web-based systems of various kinds and electronic commerce. However, the speed of progress has been such that it has also brought with it a new set of problems. This paper reviews the current state of research into agent-based systems, considering reasons for the way the field has grown and pointing at the way it might continue to progress. It pays particular attention to problems with defining the nature of agents, the technologies that have enabled the rapid progress to date, and ways in which work can be consolidated through the development of large-scale applications, and the integration with theoretical foundations.

From SMART to agent systems development

2005

In order for agent-oriented software engineering to prove effective it must use principled notions of agents and enabling specification and reasoning, while still considering routes to practical implementation. This paper deals with the issue of individual agent specification and construction, departing from the conceptual basis provided by the smart agent framework. smart offers a descriptive specification of an agent architecture but omits consideration of issues relating to construction and control.

Towards a Distributed, Environment-Centered Agent Framework John R. Graham and Keith S. Decker

6Th International Workshop on Intelligent Agents Vi Agent Theories Architectures and Languages, 1999

This paper will discuss the internal architecture for an agent framework called DECAF (Distributed Environment Centered Agent Framework). DECAF is a software toolkit for the rapid design, development, and execution of "intelligent" agents to achieve solutions in complex software systems. From a research community perspective, DECAF provides a modular platform for evaluating and disseminating results in agent architectures, including communication, planning, scheduling, execution monitoring, coordination, diagnosis, and learning. From a user/programmer perspective, DECAF distinguishes itself by removing the focus from the underlying components of agent building such as socket creation, message formatting, and agent communication. Instead, users may quickly prototype agent systems by focusing on the domain-specific parts of the problem via a graphical plan editor, reusable generic behaviors [3], and various supporting middle-agents [4]. This paper will briefly describe the key portions of the DECAF toolkit and as well as some of the internal details of the agent execution framework. While not all of the modules have yet been completely realized, DECAF has already been used for teaching purposes, allowing student teams, initially untutored in agent systems, to quickly build prototype multi-agent information gathering systems.

A Framework for Developing Agent-Based Distributed Applications

2010 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology, 2010

The development of large-scale distributed multiagent systems in open dynamic environments is a challenge. System behavior is often not predictable and can only be evaluated by execution. This paper proposes a framework to support design and development of such systems: a framework in which both simulation and emulation play an important role. A distributed agent platform (AgentScape) is used to illustrate the potential of the framework.

An approach towards an agent computing environment

Proceedings. 19th IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems. Workshops on Electronic Commerce and Web-based Applications. Middleware

We devise a mobile agent middleware architecture for supporting distributed applications in a wide-area network. The architecture provides a structural framework for functional components that are needed to support mobile agents in asymmetric networking environments.

Development and Specification of a Reference Architecture for Agent-Based Systems

IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems, 2014

The recent growth of agent-based software systems was achieved without the development of a reference architecture. From a software engineering standpoint, a reference architecture is necessary to compare, evaluate, and integrate past, current, and future agent-based software systems. The agent systems reference architecture (ASRA) advances the agent-based system development process by providing a set of key interaction patterns for functional areas that exist between the layers and protocols of agent-based systems. Furthermore, the ASRA identifies the points for interoperability between agent-based systems and increases the level of discussion when referring to agent-based systems. This paper presents methodology, grounded in software forensics, to develop the ASRA and provides an overview of the resulting architectural representation. The methodology uses an approach based on software engineering techniques adapted to study agent frameworks-the libraries and tools for building agent systems. The resulting ASRA can serve as an abstract representation of the components necessary for facilitating comparison, integration, and interoperation of software systems composed of agents.

Proper use of Agent Technologies in Design and Implementation of Software Intensive Systems

2006

Envisions of future network enabled socio-technical systems are in focus of several international ongoing efforts by industry and academia. Different interest groups, e.g., the agent and the Grid computing communities, have to that end put forward several roadmaps. However, those roadmaps by and large presuppose a key role to be played by their favorite technologies. We propose another complementary approach with a focus on the requirements on the goal system (Network Enabled Capabilities) and a generic configurable framework to support design, implementation, monitoring, and maintenance of future dependable and secure sociotechnical systems. Our methodological approach is grounded on IEEE standards on software intensive systems and on own experiences in development of such systems. We propose the use of agent technologies foremost in requirement engineering and high-level design whence the implementation platform is in our cases preferably based on Service Oriented Architectures as in Grid computing.