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Architecture-Centric Software Development of Situated Multiagent Systems

  • Conference paper
Engineering Societies in the Agents World VII (ESAW 2006)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 4457))

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Abstract

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 adoption of MAS.

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  1. DistriNet, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200 A, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium

    Danny Weyns & Tom Holvoet

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  1. Danny Weyns
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  2. Tom Holvoet
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Gregory M. P. O’Hare Alessandro Ricci Michael J. O’Grady Oğuz Dikenelli

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Weyns, D., Holvoet, T. (2007). Architecture-Centric Software Development of Situated Multiagent Systems. In: O’Hare, G.M.P., Ricci, A., O’Grady, M.J., Dikenelli, O. (eds) Engineering Societies in the Agents World VII. ESAW 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 4457. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-75524-1_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-75524-1_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-75522-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-75524-1

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