The aim of this paper is to show the different phases, models and artifacts of a methodology that was created by the research group in order to develop multi-agent based simulation models. The proposed methodology is based on some of the most outstanding features of the classic software engineering, the agent-oriented software engineering and the systems simulation. Once those features have bee...

This paper describes a methodology for agent oriented software engineering, called Tropos1. Tropos is based on three key ideas. First, the notion of agent and all the related mentalistic notions (for instance: goals and plans) are used in all phases of software development, from the early analysis down to the actual implementation. Second, Tropos covers also the very early phases of requirement...

Software engineers continually strive to develop tools and techniques to manage the complexity that is inherent in software systems. In this article, we argue that intelligent agents and multi-agent systems are just such tools. We begin by reviewing what is meant by the term “agent”, and contrast agents with objects. We then go on to examine a number of prototype techniques proposed for enginee...

Organization-based Multiagent Systems are a promising way to develop complex multiagent systems. However, it is still difficult to create large multiagent organizations from scratch. Multiagent organizations created using current AOSE methodologies tend to produce ad-hoc designs that work well for small applications but are not easily reused. In this paper, we provide a conceptual framework for...

Agent-based computing has materialized as a powerful technology for developing complex software systems [1]. Having emerged, like so many other disciplines, from artificial intelligence, it is now a melting pot of many different research areas (artificial intelligence, software engineering, robotics, and distributed computing). Agent-Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) stems from a line of res...

As software plays an increasingly important role in people’s lives, the impact it has on their values frequently becomes apparent. Many software design methods address “soft issues”, but very few address values explicitly. We present six principles that design methods should meet in order to properly deal with values. One area in which adherence to stakeholder values is important, is Agent-Orie...

Agent Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) is one of the fields of the agent domain with a continuous growing interest. The reason is that the possibility to easily specify and implement agent-based systems is of a great importance for the recognition of the add-value of the agent technology in many application fields. In this paper we present an attempt towards this direction, by proposing a k...

This paper reports our progress in applying multiagent systems analysis and design techniques to autonomous robotics applications. In this paper, we apply the Multiagent Systems Engineering (MaSE) methodology to design a team of autonomous, heterogeneous search and rescue robots. MaSE provides a top-down approach to building multirobotic systems instead of the bottom up approach employed in mos...

The representation of goals and the ability to reason about them play an important role in goal-oriented requirements analysis and modelling techniques, especially in agent-oriented software engineering. Moreover goals are more useful and stable abstractions than others (e.g. user stories) in the analysis and design of software applications. Thus, the PRACTIONIST framework supports a goal-orien...