Goal models have been proposed in Distributed Artificial Intelligence for guiding software agents at run-time. In these approaches goal models consist of goal graphs representing AND/OR hierarchical decomposition along with inter-dependency links representing conflicts between goals or resources needed to satisfy them. Goal-oriented software requirements engineering exploits similar goal structures to support human analysts, at design-time, in analyzing the requirements of a system-to-be. We propose the use of goal models at different abstraction levels in engineering a Multi-Agent System (MAS), that is, not only at design time, but also as a part of the agent knowledge and choice strategy, at run-time. This approach aims at addressing crucial issues in complex distributed software such as evolvability and adaptivity. We define a tool-supported design framework that allows to specify an agent goal model and to automatically generate from it fragments of a BDI agent. We devise the design process as a transformation process from design, platform-independent models, to platform-specific models and then to code, followingModel Driven Architecture ideas. The design framework is demonstrated by referring to the Tropos methodology and to the JADE/Jadex MAS platform. The process is illustrated through an example and experimental results on various goal models are discussed.

A Design Framework for Generating BDI-Agents from Goal Models

Penserini, Loris;Perini, Anna;Susi, Angelo;Morandini, Mirko;Mylopoulos, John
2006-01-01

Abstract

Goal models have been proposed in Distributed Artificial Intelligence for guiding software agents at run-time. In these approaches goal models consist of goal graphs representing AND/OR hierarchical decomposition along with inter-dependency links representing conflicts between goals or resources needed to satisfy them. Goal-oriented software requirements engineering exploits similar goal structures to support human analysts, at design-time, in analyzing the requirements of a system-to-be. We propose the use of goal models at different abstraction levels in engineering a Multi-Agent System (MAS), that is, not only at design time, but also as a part of the agent knowledge and choice strategy, at run-time. This approach aims at addressing crucial issues in complex distributed software such as evolvability and adaptivity. We define a tool-supported design framework that allows to specify an agent goal model and to automatically generate from it fragments of a BDI agent. We devise the design process as a transformation process from design, platform-independent models, to platform-specific models and then to code, followingModel Driven Architecture ideas. The design framework is demonstrated by referring to the Tropos methodology and to the JADE/Jadex MAS platform. The process is illustrated through an example and experimental results on various goal models are discussed.
2006
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11582/2960
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