Towards a DSML for semantic web enabled multi-agent systems

Software agents are considered as autonomous software components which are capable of acting to meet its design objectives. To perform their tasks and interact with each other, agents constitute systems called Multi-agent systems (MAS). Although agent researchers have a great effort in MAS metamodeling and model-driven MAS development, a significant deficiency exists in current studies when we consider providing a complete Domain Specific Modeling Language (DSML) for MASs. We believe that a DSML increases the descriptive power of a MAS metamodel, defines the system semantics and hence supports a more fruitful methodology for the development of MASs especially working on the new challenging environments such as the Semantic Web. In this paper, we introduce a new DSML for MASs with its abstract syntax, the textual concrete syntax and the interpreter mechanism. The practical use of the DSML is illustrated with a case study which considers the modeling of a multi-agent based e-barter system.