Design & Specification of Dynamic, Mobile, and Reconfigurable Multiagent Systems

Abstract : Multiagent Systems use the power of collaborative software agents to solve complex distributed problems. There are many Agent-Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) methodologies available to assist system designers to create multiagent systems. However, none of these methodologies can specify agents with dynamic properties such as cloning, mobility or agent instantiation. This thesis starts the process to bridge the gap between AOSE methodologies and dynamic agent platforms by incorporating mobility into the current Multiagent Systems Engineering (MaSE) methodology. Mobility was specified within all components composing a mobile agent class. An agent component was also created that integrated the behavior of the components within an agent class and was transformed to handle most of the move responsibilities for a mobile agent. Those agent component and component mobility transformations were integrated into agentTool as a proof-of-concept and a demonstration system built on the mobility specifications was implemented for execution on the Carolina mobile agent platform.