复杂自适应多Agent系统的模型驱动开发方法

自适应系统是一类复杂系统,如何有效地支持此类系统的工程化开发,一直是软件工程领域的关注焦点。提 出了一个基于Agent的模型驱动软件开发方法,试图将主流软件工程中的MDA技术与软件Agent技术相结合,从而 为高效、高质量地开发复杂自适应多Agent系统提供方法学指导。该方法将基于组织抽象和()DAM+方法学所建立 起来的模型视为平台无关模型,将基于SADE平台的实现模型视为平台相关模型,通过建立这两个不同抽象层次元 模型间的映射关系,来实现从平台无关模型到平台相关模型以及最终代码框架的转换。介绍了集成MDA和Agent 技术的软件方法学(ODAM} ,阐述了复杂自适应系统模型驱动开发的一组关键技术,包括不同层次的元模型以及它 们之间的映射关系、模型转换规则和模型转换算法,最后分析了相应的支撑软件工具和应用验证情况。     

大规模无线传感器网络中基于P2P的路由模型研究

自适应系统是一类复杂系统,如何有效地支持此类系统的工程化开发,一直是软件工程领域的关注焦点。提出了一个基于Agent的模型驱动软件开发方法,试图将主流软件工程中的MDA技术与软件Agent技术相结合,从而为高效、高质量地开发复杂自适应多Agent系统提供方法学指导。该方法将基于组织抽象和ODAM+方法学所建立起来的模型视为平台无关模型,将基于SADE平台的实现模型视为平台相关模型,通过建立这两个不同抽象层次元模型间的映射关系,来实现从平台无关模型到平台相关模型以及最终代码框架的转换。介绍了集成MDA和Agent技术的软件方法学ODAM+,阐述了复杂自适应系统模型驱动开发的一组关键技术,包括不同层次的元模型以及它们之间的映射关系、模型转换规则和模型转换算法,最后分析了相应的支撑软件工具和应用验证情况。     

集成Agent技术和软件工程技术

为了满足日益复杂应用的软件开发需求,近年来Agent技术研究的一项重要趋势是与软件工程技术相结合.讨论了集成Agent技术和软件工程技术的背景和需求;介绍了正在开展的基于组织抽象和Caste机制的面向Agent软件工程研究.该项工作的特点是借助于组织学的高层抽象和概念来支持基于Agent系统的分析、建模和体系结构设计,将Caste视为支持基于Agent系统实现的基本模块构件,并建立沟通这二者之间的技术桥梁.     

复杂自适应多Agent系统的环境表示及感知

对自适应系统驻留环境的显式表示和有效感知是实现复杂自适应系统的前提,也是当前自适应系统研究面临的一项重要挑战.借助于组织学思想将自适应系统中的自主运行单元抽象为Agent,把复杂自适应系统视为多Agent组织,提出了基于动态绑定的自适应机制和构造框架;将环境作为一阶抽象,提供了对自适应多Agent组织的驻留环境进行抽象和描述的语言设施以及对环境进行有效感知的两种方法:基于事件发布-订阅和基于软传感器的方法;提出了支持软传感器与环境动态关联的思想和技术,使得复杂自适应系统的开发具有环境表示显式化、环境感知透明化的特征,所开发的软件系统易于维护和升级.介绍了实现上述机制、技术和语言设施的支撑平台SADE,并进行了案例分析以验证方法的可行性和有效性.     

多Agent系统中软构件的动态绑定机制及其操作语义

近年来,越来越多的以计算机网络为平台的应用系统表现出自主性、动态性、开放性和异构性的特点,这使得软件开发理论和技术需要从软件体系结构的角度对这类系统的开发提供支持.面向Agent的软件开发技术提供了高层和自然的抽象方式对软件系统进行分析和设计,但现有面向Agent的方法学将Agent Class或者Agent Type视为多Agent系统软件体系结构的软构件,与Agent之间的关系仅仅是实例化的关系,这难以满足复杂系统对动态性的需求.从软件体系结构的角度上分析了多Agent系统中软构件的形式和机制,将Caste作为软构件,并以此为基础提出了Caste与Agent之间的动态绑定关系,定义了支持该机制的4个基本操作:join,quit,activate和inactivate及其操作语义,用以来指导多Agent系统软件体系结构的设计和实现.     

基于Agent的模型转换及其支撑软件工具ODAMTransformer

模型驱动开发技术通过不同抽象层次模型的建立和转换,可有效提高软件开发的效率和质量。本文将模型驱动开发思想引入到面向Agent软件工程,研究了基于Agent的模型转换技术,并将它集成到面向Agent的软件开发方法学ODAM中。ODAM将基于组织抽象所建立起来的模型视为平台无关模型,将基于特定平台所建立起来的模型视为平台相关模型,支持模型驱动的软件开发。本文选取JADE作为目标系统的开发平台,建立了ODAM元模型和JADE元模型间的映射关系,提出了从ODAM组织模型到JADE模型、从JADE模型到程序代码的模型转换规则,开发了相应的支撑软件工具ODAMTransformer,通过案例分析和演示展示了技术和工具的可行性和有效性。     

面向Agent软件开发方法的评估

面向Agent的软件开发在构建复杂系统中具有明显的优势,但当前没有建立面向Agent系统的统一方法,缺乏必要的软件工程环境提供支持.分析了基于Agent的应用程序的优点,提出了其适用领域,通过对多个方法学的分析提出了构成Agent系统所必需的属性.     

面向Agent的软件工程方法学

软件Agent技术正在成为软件开发领域中一个新的发展方向，现在大多数的Agent研究都是以创建Agent应用程序为目标，即用Agent的概念创建更为强大，更具灵活性和智能性的程序。但是随着Agent技术在各种应用中的发展和成熟，就需要在方法论上对之进行指导。因此，面向Agent的软件方法学就成为Agent研究中最活跃的一个研究领域之一。本文通过对几种在面向Agent软件工程中使用的主流方法学进行分析，指出了Agent方法学在面向Agent软件系统开发中的重要性。与此同时，通过对面向对象和面向Agent的方法学比较，指出现有的面向对象方法学的一些不足，以及如何通过面向Agent的概念进行改进。     

面向Agent的软件工程:现状与挑战

面向Agent软件工程是近年来软件工程领域出现的一个重要的前沿研究方向，它试图将Agent理论和技术与软件工程的思想、原理和原则相结合，从而为基于Agent系统的开发提供工程化手段．近年来，随着Internet上的web应用以及软件开发社会化的发展，面向Agent软件工程受到了学术界和工业界的高度关注和重视，研究活跃，发展迅速．从应用需求和技术发展两个方面阐述了面向Agent软件工程的产生和发展背景；从技术、管理和工具3个视点综述了现阶段面向Agent软件工程的研究内容；分析了面向Agent软件工程的研究现状；最后讨论了它存在的问题和面临的挑战以指导进一步研究．     

面向Agent软件工程在企业素质诊断系统中的应用

在企业素质诊断系统的开发中引入AOSE,分析了AOSE方法在实际工作中的不足.在开发过程中以软件智能体系统工程方法学(MESSAGE)建模语言为一致性规则,采用愿望-意图-信念(D-I-B)次序的建模方法进行Agent设计.以JADE和Jadex为开发平台,给出了BDI Agent等关键技术的实现,总结出一个完整和系统的面向Agent软件开发过程.     

Process models for agent-based development

A great deal of research in the area of agent-oriented software engineering (AOSE) focuses on proposing methodologies for agent systems, i.e., on identifying the guidelines to drive the various phases of agent-based software development and the abstractions to be exploited in these phases. However, very little attention has been paid so far to the engineering process subjacent to the development activity, disciplining the execution of the different phases involved in the software development. In this paper, we focus on process models for software development and put these in relation with current researches in AOSE. First, we introduce the key concepts and issues related to software processes and present the various software process models currently adopted in mainstream software engineering. Then, we survey the characteristics of a number of agent-oriented methodologies, as they pertain to software processes. In particular, for each methodology, we analyze which software process model it (often implicitly) underlies and which phases of the process are covered by it, thus enabling us to identify some key limitations of currently methodology-centered researches. On this basis, we eventually identify and analyze several open issues in the area of software process models for agent-based development, calling for further researches and experiences.     

面向Agent软件工程研究现状与展望

文章介绍了面向Agent软件工程(AOSE)的关键抽象集,综述了形式化和非形式化AOSE方法、Agent统一模型语言(AUML)、AOSE开发工具的研究现状和存在的主要问题,最后根据面向Agent编程范型表示一种计算的社会观点,基于社会学理论展望了AOSE的下一步发展。     

Medee Method Framework: a situational approach for organization-centered MAS

This paper presents a situational approach, called Medee Method Framework, which allows the development of organization-centered MAS in a disciplined way, even though some agent organizational (AO) models are not currently incorporated into agent-oriented software engineering (AOSE) methods. In order to do that, such a method framework proposes the composition of MAS situational methods out of method fragments according to a given project situation, by applying the principles proposed by situational method engineering. The proposed approach provides a high degree of reuse and flexibility, allowing the composition of new methods as well as the reengineering of AOSE methods based on the standards proposed by SPEM. Furthermore, it allows the user to leverage advantages of both AOSE methods and AO models in order to develop organization-centered MAS. The Medee Method Framework offers a method repository that covers different development phases, such as requirements, analysis, design, implementation, as well as the main components of a MAS application, like agents, environments, interactions, and organizations. This repository has been sourced from several AOSE methods and AO models, as Gaia, Tropos, Ingenias, PASSI, MOISE, and OperA.     

面向Agent软件工程:现状、挑战与展望

面向Agent软件工程是近年出现的一种新颖软件开发范型,它借助于Agent技术来支持软件系统的工程化开发,被视为是支持复杂软件系统开发的一种重要方法和手段,受到了学术界和工业界的高度关注和重视。尽管在过去十年多的时间里面向Agent软件工程的研究取得了诸多进展,但其技术潜力尚有待进一步发挥,走向大规模工业化应用仍面临诸多问题和挑战。在分析面向Agent软件工程产生背景和技术特点的基础上,从方法、过程和工具三个不同的角度,综述了面向Agent软件工程的研究现状,识别和分析了它当前所面临的一组关键挑战,展望和讨论了其未来的研究方向。     

Engineering the social: The role of shared artifacts

This paper presents a multidisciplinary approach to engineering socio-technical design. The paper addresses technological design for social interactions that are non-instrumental, and thereby sometimes contradictory or surprising and difficult to model. Through cooperative analysis of cultural probe data and development of agent-oriented software engineering (AOSE) models, ethnographers and software engineers participate in conversations around shared artifacts, which facilitate the transition from data collected in a social environment to a socially oriented requirements analysis for informing socio-technical design.To demonstrate how this transition was made, we present a case study of the process of designing technology to support familial relationships, such as playing, gifting, showing, telling and creating memories. The case study is based on data collected in a cultural probes study that explores the diverse, complex and unpredictable design environment of the home. A multidisciplinary team worked together through a process of conversations around shared artifacts to cooperatively analyze collected data and develop models. These conversations provided the opportunity to view the data from the perspective of alternative disciplines that resulted in the emergence of novel understandings and innovative practice.The artifacts in the process included returned probe items, scrapbooks, videos of interviews, photographs, family biographies and the AOSE requirements models. When shared between the two communities of practice, some of these artifacts played important roles in mediating discussions of mutual influence between ethnographers and software engineers. The shared artifacts acted as both triggers for conversations and information vessels—providing a variety of interpretable objects enabling both sides to articulate their understandings in different ways and to collaboratively negotiate understandings of the collected data. Analyzing the interdisciplinary exchange provided insight into the identification of bridging elements that allowed ‘the social’ to permeate the processes of analysis, requirements elicitation and design.     

Suitability assessment framework of agent-based software architectures

ContextA common distributed intelligent system architecture is Multi Agent Systems (MASs). Creating systems with this architecture has been recently supported by Agent Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) methodologies. But two questions remain: how do we determine the suitability of a MAS implementation for a particular problem? And can this be determined without AOSE expertise?ObjectiveGiven the relatively small number of software engineers that are AOSE experts, many problems that could be better solved with a MAS system are solved using more commonly known but not necessarily as suitable development approaches (e.g. object-oriented). The paper aims to empower software engineers, who are not necessarily AOSE experts, in deciding whether or not they should advocate the use of an MAS technology for a given project.MethodThe paper will construct a systematic framework to identify key criteria in a problem requirement definition to assess the suitability of a MAS solution. The criteria are first identified using an iterative process. The features are initially identified from MAS implementations, and then validated against related work. This is followed by a statistical analysis of 25 problems that characterise agent-oriented solutions previously developed to group features into key criteria.ResultsKey criteria were sufficiently prominent using factor analysis to construct a framework which provides a process that identifies within the requirements the criteria discovered. This framework is then evaluated for assessing suitability of a MAS architecture, by non-AOSE experts, on two real world problems: an electricity market simulation and a financial accounting system.ConclusionSubstituting a software engineer’s personal inclination to (or not to) use a MAS, our framework provides an objective mechanism. It can supplant current practices where the decision to use a MAS architecture for a given problem remains an informal process. It was successfully illustrated on two real world problems to assess the suitability of a MAS implementation. This paper will potentially facilitate the take up of MAS technology.     

Requirements Elicitation and Analysis of Multiagent Systems Using Activity Theory

Requirements elicitation and analysis is intended to gain knowledge about customers' needs and the environment of a software system. Requirements not only commonly deal with business processes and their data but also with the motivation behind these activities, the social structures that forge them, and previous design decisions. Recent studies show that the intentional and social concepts of agent-oriented software engineering (AOSE) could be used for the analysis of these aspects. Nevertheless, even having specialized modeling primitives for these requirements is not sufficient for their elicitation. Specialized analysis techniques are also required, but this is commonly overlooked by agent-oriented methodologies. This paper aims to provide the needed modeling primitives and support by means of the theoretical and methodological foundation of a social sciences framework, the activity theory, and its activity checklist. They inspire our Requirements Elicitation Guide (REG) for AOSE. The REG contains the expert knowledge that developers need to grasp information about their multiagent systems, human environments, and their mutual influences. This knowledge takes the form of requirements described as diagrams in a proper modeling language. The REG is applied in a process with the corresponding support tool. In this way, the REG guides requirements elicitation and increases the productivity with the use of templates for a wide range of requirements. These elements have been validated with several case studies. Two of them appear as part of this paper.      

A structured approach to program optimization

Software engineering should provide software engineers with methodologies and tools suitable for use in that small number of applications where efficiency is really important. In order to do that, the optimization process should be a clearly visible phase of the software lifecycle (regardless of the particular software development paradigm adopted), so that it can be regulated, securing the production of good quality and efficient software. With this in mind, the author suggests an approach to program optimization based on a paradigm, a method, some principles and guidelines, and some well-known techniques