Role Delegation as Multi-Agent Oriented Dynamic Composition

In the context of highly heterogeneous, complex and dynamic systems, we can compare distributed object based and component based approaches, that were first centered on the idea of composition and modularity, where dynamicity has become an issue afterward, with MAS approaches, whose first concern was the dynamicity, and where composition was in the beginning rather considered as an implementation issue. Now, both communities tend to foster the gap. Our work is part of this trend, by exploring the notion of situated composition, where each agent or component can have its own compositional perception of the rest of the system, and by considering that an agent is actually an extended component. We achieve agent dynamic composition in terms of delegation and agent proxies. This way, component aggregation accounts for synchronization and existing interaction patterns. Agent conversations are the natural canvas supporting compositional relationships, and agents are recursively decomposable, without having to introduce other organizational constructs that might disturb agents fundamental properties.