Developing multi-agent systems with automatic agent generation and dynamic task allocation mechanisms
Xiaoqin Zhang, Haiping Xu, Bhavesh Shrestha · 2007
Multi-Agent System (MAS) is a suitable programming paradigm for distributed information systems and applications. We have been working on a set of technologies and mechanisms to ease and formalize the development of MAS, and to increase its reliability and reuse-ability too. We aim to cover the analysis and modeling, design and implementation phases. The first goal is to separate concerns. We have proposed a three-layered development process to separate the multiple issues in a multi-agent system, while some of them are application-dependent, others are not; some of them are platform-dependent and others are not. We have also aimed to separate the domain knowledge and the intelligent problem-solving capabilities. We adapt a role-based modeling approach, conceptual roles are defined with the domain related knowledge, such as goals, permissions, organizational relationship, and interaction protocols, etc; where agent is a concrete entity equipped with motivations, resources and problem-solving capabilities.