Multi-agent systems (MAS) are complex software systems. Usually, this kind of software is situated in a constantly changing environment. In such conditions, the capability of adapting to the environment and to the rest of agents is crucial for each individual in the society. In this paper, we make a proposal to reach adaptiveness in MAS through using the notions of trust and reputation. We pres...

Specifying behaviors of physical multi-agent systems (MAS) – also called multi-robot systems – is a demanding task, especially when they are applied in safety critical applications. For this, formal methods based on mathematical models of the system under design are helpful. They allow us not only to formally specify the system at different levels of abstraction, but also to analyze the consist...

This paper is a manifesto in progress. We are two researchers who frequently use agents in anger to do our jobs. Yet we have been having trouble finding value in most of the papers that get published in the field of Multi Agent Systems (MAS). This paper represents our attempt to understand why not. We will start with the most basic question: Why do people use Multi Agent Systems? One answer is ...

Logic-based representations of multi-agent systems have been extensively studied. In this work, we focus on the action language BC to formalize global views of MAS domains. Methodologically, we start representing the behaviour of each agent by an action description from a single agent perspective. Then, it goes through two stages that guide the modeler in composing the global view by first desi...

Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) provide for the modeling of practical systems in the elds of communications, exible manufacturing, and air-traac management 1]. Herein, we treat the general MAS as an Interconnected Discrete Event System (IDES). By design or due to failure, the actual system is often subject to change and so is its IDES model. For example, at the highest level, an existing subsystem ma...

A great number of processes for multi-agent systems have been presented in last years to support the different approaches to agentoriented design; every process is specific for a particular class of problems and it deals with a specific MAS meta-model. These differences produce inconsistences and overlaps: a MAS meta-model may define a term not referred by another, or the same term can be used ...

Multi-agent systems (MAS) differ from non-agent based systems because agents are intended to be autonomous units of intelligent functionality. As a consequence, agent-based software engineering methods must complement standard design activities and representations with models of the agent society. Some methods coming from artificial intelligence community address social knowledge and relationsh...

We present how we used Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) to ease the development of Multi-Agent Systems (MAS). Our study focuses on the Aalaadin MAS model. We make use of AOP at both the conceptual level of Aalaadin and the implementation level. On the conceptual level, we introduced in Aalaadin AOP concepts. It results in unifying the group concept of Aalaadin with the aspect concept. This uni...

Multi-agent systems have a reputation for bringing with them the property of robustness. However, multi-agent systems need to be specifically designed to display this property and until now it is unclear how this can be achieved. One way of approaching this, is to try to simulate social systems, as social order is in close analogy to robustness. We discuss this analogy, give an attempt to a def...

This paper presents the Process for Agent Specification, Simulation and Implementation (PASSIM), a simulation-based development process for Multi-agent Systems (MASs), which was obtained by integrating the well-known and established Process for Agent Societies Specification and Implementation (PASSI) methodology and a Statecharts-based simulation methodology supporting functional and nonfunctio...