Using Agent-Based Modelling Approaches to Support the Development of Safety Policy for Systems of Systems

A safety policy defines the set of rules that governs the safe interaction of agents operating together as part of a system of systems (SoS). Agent autonomy can give rise to unpredictable, and potentially undesirable, emergent behaviour. Deriving rules of safety policy requires an understanding of the capabilities of an agent as well as how its actions affect the environment and consequently the actions of others. Methods for multi-agent system design can aid in this understanding. Such approaches mention organisational rules. However, there is little discussion about how they are derived. This paper proposes modelling systems according to three viewpoints: an agent viewpoint, a causal viewpoint and a domain viewpoint. The agent viewpoint captures system capabilities and inter-relationships. The causal viewpoint describes the effect an agent’s actions has on its environment as well as inter-agent influences. The domain viewpoint models assumed properties of the operating environment.