Software agents: Languages, tools, platforms

Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems

This special issue of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems sought research articles that discuss relevant topics for the current trends in research on software agents and agentbased software systems. Topics of interest included techniques and technologies to engineer agent-based software systems, as well as languages, frameworks, and infrastructures broadly related to software agents and agent-based software systems. After more than 20 years from the very first attempts at using software agents as building blocks of real-world software systems (e.g., [5]), we witness today high-profile applications of software agents (e.g., [7]), even if agent-based software development cannot be considered common practice (e.g., [2]). This special issue is intended to represent a milestone in the research on software agents and agent-based software development by clearly identifying current trends and relevant topics, and by providing an informed outlook on the future of discussed themes.

IEEE Distributed Systems Online, 2000

Intelligent agent and multiagent systems are an interesting, dynamic area of information technology. The usual focus of interest in MASs is their perceived high-level conceptual capabilities. However, many agent-related research projects, both academic and commercial, focus on software tools and their applications, and their number is growing. Software Agent-Based Applications, Platforms and Development Kits appeared just in time to provide a comprehensive overview of existing software agent development kits and environments and their applications.

Agent-Oriented Software Engineering, 2001

Software agent technology has been intensively explored in the past three decades. It is explicitly or implicitly applied in many systems. Software agent research covers a wide range of area which makes it challenging for new researchers to comprehend the peculiarities and complexities of the technology. Consequently, this paper provides a concise overview of software agent research, modeling, and development. It summarizes and analyzes more than 100 sources of publication including research papers, articles, and books. The aim of the paper is to provide a quick start to new researchers in software agent and multi-agent systems. The paper offers the following contributions: (1) it determines the milestone achievements of software agent conceptualization, modeling and development platforms, (2) it defines the related terminologies of the field and reveals their redundancies, (3) it summarizes the multi-agent systems technology and finally, (4) it explores the current active research topics in software agent and multi-agent systems.

2000

The use of modelling abstractions to map from items in the real-world to objects in the computational domain is useful both for the effective implementation of abstract problem solutions and for the management of software complexity. This paper discusses the new approach of agent-oriented software engineering (AOSE), which uses the notion of an autonomous agent as its fundamental modelling abstraction. For the AOSE approach to be fully exploited, software engineers must be able to gain leverage from an agent software ...

The agents have taken birth from artificial intelligence that agent use sensors to perceive their environment through actuators. Agents performs task interactively, autonomously and flexibility in complex environments. Now a day, agents are used in industrial and as well commercial applications. In this paper, we have discussed basics of agents and their architecture, development methodologies, framework and implementation platforms. The three agent architectures are discussed i.e. deliberative, reactive and hybrid architectures. The difference between deliberative architecture and reactive architecture has been presented. Where, deliberative architectures are not well suited for dynamic environments. Some important methodologies i.e. GAIA, MASE, PASSI etc. are discussed. Implementation platforms middleware, reasoning and societal platforms are described for agents.

2007

This paper proposes a new taxonomy for agents and their programming languages and platforms. This taxonomy is based not only on properties that agents exhibit, but also on the deliberative control flow that they follow. After analysing the main characteristics of each class of agent, we describe the relevant languages and platforms included in each class. The article compares these different classes, highlighting their main advantages and drawbacks, and suggesting some enhancements which could improve current agent-oriented programming languages.

2002

Abstract Agent-Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) is an emerging paradigm within industry that offers much potential of the management of the increasing levels of complexity inherent within modern software systems. For this paradigm to gain widespread acceptance, it is vital that we develop comprehensive frameworks that support the development and deployment of agent-oriented applications.

IASTED Conference on Software Engineering, 2004

Agent-oriented software engineering (AOSE) is motivated by the need to develop software applications that perform in increasingly complex, distributed, open, dynamic and unpredictable environments. Two major fields of research that contribute to achievements towards AOSE are the software engineering and the agent-based computing fields. Even though there is no concrete relation between these two fields in the past years, research communities from software engineering and agent-based computing interact seeking an appropriate methodology and modelling technique for incorporating software agents into the software development process. This article classifies and evaluates the main approaches towards AOSE methodologies and modelling techniques. It aims to clarify different assumptions and attitudes concerning the modelling of agent-based systems and further establish a set of criteria for researchers and practitioners to evaluate existing and ongoing efforts.

2000

is one of six departments that make up the School of Business at the University of Otago. The department offers courses of study leading to a major in Information Science within the BCom, BA and BSc degrees. In addition to undergraduate teaching, the department is also strongly involved in postgraduate research programmes leading to MCom, MA, MSc and PhD degrees. Research projects in spatial information processing, connectionist-based information systems, software engineering and software development, information engineering and database, software metrics, distributed information systems, multimedia information systems and information systems security are particularly well supported. The views expressed in this paper are not necessarily those of the department as a whole. The accuracy of the information presented in this paper is the sole responsibility of the authors. Copyright remains with the authors. Permission to copy for research or teaching purposes is granted on the condition that the authors and the Series are given due acknowledgment. Reproduction in any form for purposes other than research or teaching is forbidden unless prior written permission has been obtained from the authors. This paper represents work to date and may not necessarily form the basis for the authors' final conclusions relating to this topic. It is likely, however, that the paper will appear in some form in a journal or in conference proceedings in the near future. The authors would be pleased to receive correspondence in connection with any of the issues raised in this paper, or for subsequent publication details. Please write directly to the authors at the address provided below. (Details of final journal/conference publication venues for these papers are also provided on the Department's publications web pages: ). Any other correspondence concerning the Series should be sent to the DPS Coordinator.