Formal Specification Approach of Role Dynamics in Agent Organisations: Application to the Satisfaction-Altruism Model

This article deals with the problem of dynamic role-playing in Multi-Agent organisations. The approach presented uses a formal specification notation and is based upon a formal framework which defines the concepts of role, interaction and organisation. Within this framework the problem of dynamic role-playing specification is related to the merging of specifications. The formal notation used composes Object-Z and Statecharts. The main features of this approach are: enough expressive power to represent Multi-Agents dynamic aspects, tools for specification analysis and mechanisms allowing the refinement of a high level specification into a low level specification which can be easily implemented. The last part of the paper presents an application with the specification of a reactive and cooperative MAS model named Satisfaction Altruism. An analysis of the specification validates the agents’ behaviours.