Agent Oriented Software Engineering

Considering the great number of agent-oriented methodologies that can be found in literature, and the fact that each one defines its own concepts and system structure, one of the main challenges in AgentOriented Software Engineering research is how to make these methodologies interoperable. By defining in a non ambiguous way concepts used in a specific domain, meta-modelling may represent a step towards such an interoperability. Consequently the main objective of the AOSE TFG (Technical Forum Group) is to establish a strategy for identifying a common meta-model that could be widely adopted by the AOSE community. This paper sums up the approach used by this TFG which consists in (i) studying and comparing the meta-models related to some existing methodologies (ADELFE, Gaia, INGENIAS, PASSI, RICA and Tropos) in order to find commonalities and (ii) giving a clear and basic definition for the core concepts used in multi-agent systems for relating and positioning them in a unified MAS metamodel. The first proposal, set up by the working group, for this unified meta-model then concludes this paper.