A PETRI NET BASED AGENT BEHAVIORAL TESTING (original) (raw)
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A Petri Net Based Multi-Agent System Behavioral Testing
In Multi-Agent System (MAS), developers concentrate on creating design models and evolving them, from higher level models to lower level models, in several steps. Considerable part of MAS implementations is automatically produced from the design models. If a design model contains faults, they are passed to the generated implementations. Practical model validation techniques are required to discover and delete faults in abstract design models. In this paper, we introduce a formal approach for MAS design testing. It specifies a testing process that complements Multi-agent Systems Engineering (MaSE) methodology and strengthens the mutual relationship between UML and MAS. Besides, it defines a structured and comprehensive testing process for engineering software agents at the design level by providing a systematic way of converting the MAS design models to UML design diagram. Then a Petri Net (PN) diagram is generated from the UML models to simulate the behavior of the MAS system. Finally, because Petri Nets (PNs) are formal models, their analysis techniques can be applied to automatic MAS behavioral testing.
CPN4M: Testing Multi-Agent Systems under Organizational Model Moise+ Using Colored Petri Nets
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Multi-agent systems (MASs) are distributed and complex software that demand specific software engineering features. Testing is a critical phase when validating software, and it is also difficult to conceive and execute. Designing systems under a multi-agent paradigm is even more difficult because of properties such as autonomy, reactivity, pro-activity, and social skills. Any multi-agent system has at least three main dimensions: the individual and social levels and communication interfaces. Considering an approach for testing a dimension specifically, we deal with the social level as an organizational model in this paper. It imposes some restrictions on agents’ behavior through a set of behavioral constraints. In this sense, an error in the organization can occur when the allocated resources are not enough for executing plans and reaching goals. This work aims to present a whole framework for analyzing and testing MAS social level under organizational model Moise+. This framework u...
Petri Net: A Tool for Modeling and Analyze Multi-agent Oriented Systems
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Analysis and proper assessment of multiagent system properties are very much important. In this paper, we discussed about methodologies for modeling, analysis and design of multi-agent oriented system with the help of Petri net. A Multi-agent system can be considered as a discrete-event dynamic system and Petri nets are used as a modeling tool to assess the structural properties of the multi-agent system. Petri net provides an assessment of the interaction properties of the multiagent.
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IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 1997
High-level Petri nets provide a graphical language for the modeling of distributed information systems. Petri nets can be validated by simulation. In this paper, a technique is proposed which generates test cases for the simulation of high-level Petri nets in a systematic way. The approach is called cause-effect-net-concept and is derived from a program code testing concept, the so-called cause-effect
International Journal of Information Technology and Computer Science
The Agent Petri Nets (APN) formalism provides a set of adapted and specific tools, relations and functions for modeling multi-agent systems (MAS). However, there is a lack of tools for verifying the APN models. In order to fill some of these gaps, we propose in this paper, a meta-modeling approach based on the Model Driven Architecture (MDA). The Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) permits to define a generic APN Meta-model in Ecore informal format. Its abstraction level is very high, it offers as a basis for developing system models dedicated to various specific domains. In addition, the Object Constraint Language (OCL) aims to increase the structural verification level of the model and the Graphical Modeling Framework (GMF), for its part, is concerned with generating a graphical editor associated with the APN meta-model. Thus, we combine the rigor of APN formalism with the power of the MDA-based metamodeling tools for verifying APN models.
Multi-agent systems implementation and testing
2004
The need of software tools for designing and testing complex distributed multi-agent systems is considerable. Over the past few years we have been developing a theoretical and practical methodology for designing, implementing and testing multi-agent systems. As part of this effort an agent-oriented CASE tool, which aims at simplifying the multi-agent system designer's work, and a testing framework, which provides a uniform and automated approach to the testing of multi-agent systems, have been designed and implemented. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of that work with particular attention to the recent results achieved. Therefore the paper mainly focuses on the testing tool and the issues connected with the diagrammatic notations, which should support developers when moving from the design phase towards the implementation phase of multi-agent systems.
Performance Evaluation for the Design of Agent-based Systems: A Petri Net Approach
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Software design and implementation using mobile agents are nowadays involved in a scepticism halo. There are researchers who question its utility because it could be a new technology that does provide new skills but it could introduce new problems. Security and performance are the most critical aspects for this new kind of software. In this paper we present a formal approach to analyse performance for this class of systems. Our approach is integrated in the early stages of the software development process. In this way, it is possible to predict the behaviour without the necessity to carry out the complete implementation phase. To show the approach, we model a software retrieval service system in a pragmatic way, later, the corresponding formal model is obtained and analysed in order to study performance.
Multiagent and Grid Systems, 2019
On one hand, Petri nets are widely used as a modeling formalism to assess both structural and behavioral properties of the multi-agent system bacause of their mathematical foundations and the rich underlying analysis tools has developed around them. On the other hand, Maude is a very powerful formal specification language based on rewriting logic that is known as a unifying framework for different types of Petri nets and offers a wide range of analysis techniques. In this paper, we will present a new algorithm allowing the automatic generation of Maude specifications from Petri nets models in order to help designers to effectively obtain the rewriting logic based specification of their multi-agent systems and then facilitate their analysis, pick up time and stay away from human related errors occurred during the manual preparation of such specification.
A Multi-Agent Based Environment to Aid in the Design of Petri Nets Based Software Systems
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This paper explores the possibility of applying distributed arti cial intelligent systems and multi-agent systems to help in the design of engineering software systems. We de ne an environment consisted basically by arti cial designers that based on their knowledge, help a human designer to obtain the design of the software systems. The software design engineering problem we take as example is the design of the interlocking software for distributed track-vehicle controllers. The design of these modules are based on Petri nets, from which we can derive invariants that are used as the basis to characterize agent's knowledge in our design aid environment.
An Approach to Model Based Testing of Multiagent Systems
The Scientific World Journal, 2015
Autonomous agents perform on behalf of the user to achieve defined goals or objectives. They are situated in dynamic environment and are able to operate autonomously to achieve their goals. In a multiagent system, agents cooperate with each other to achieve a common goal. Testing of multiagent systems is a challenging task due to the autonomous and proactive behavior of agents. However, testing is required to build confidence into the working of a multiagent system. Prometheus methodology is a commonly used approach to design multiagents systems. Systematic and thorough testing of each interaction is necessary. This paper proposes a novel approach to testing of multiagent systems based on Prometheus design artifacts. In the proposed approach, different interactions between the agent and actors are considered to test the multiagent system. These interactions include percepts and actions along with messages between the agents which can be modeled in a protocol diagram. The protocol di...