Extending UML to Modeling and Design of Multi-Agent Systems

Over the last decade the popularity of agent-based systems have increased rapidly because agents bring intelligence, reasoning and autonomy to software systems. Recent advances in middleware and run-time systems have helped in designing agent-based systems. However, little work has been reported in defining a software architecture, modeling and analysis tools that can be used by software engineers. In this paper, we present a framework for modeling, analysis and construction of agent-based systems. The framework is an extension of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) to include a new classifier called Agent which is modeled by three abstract types called Belief, Goal and Plan, respectively. In addition, we introduce Goal Diagram to depict the relationships between use cases and goals, Inter-Agent Sequence Diagram and Intra-Agent Sequence Diagram to model interactions between agents and within an agent. We illustrate the framework through an agent-based intelligent elevator system.

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