Architecture-Centric Software Development of Situated Multiagent Systems

A multiagent system (MAS) structures a software system as a set of autonomous agents that interact through a shared environment. Software architecture is generally considered as the structures of a system which comprise software elements and the relationships among the elements. So there is a clear connection between MAS and software architecture. In our research, we study situated MAS, i.e. systems in which agents have an explicit position in the environment. We apply situated MAS to domains that are characterized by highly dynamic operating conditions and an inherent distribution of resources. We use an architecture-centric approach for developing such MAS. From our experiences with building various applications, we have developed a reference architecture for situated MAS. The reference architecture provides an asset base architects can draw from when developing new systems that share the common base of the reference architecture. In this paper, we explain our perspective on architecture-centric software development of MAS. We give an overview of the reference architecture and we show an excerpt of the software architecture of an industrial application in which we have used the reference architecture. The reference architecture shows how knowledge and experience with MAS can be documented and matured in a form that has proven its value in mainstream software engineering. We believe that this integration is a key to industrial adop-