The need of a quality software engineering approach to design MAS arises together with the need of new methodological ways to address important issues such as ontology representation, security concerns and production costs. The introduction of an extensive pattern reuse practice can be determinant in cutting down the time and cost of developing this systems.
Patterns can be extremely successful with MAS (even more than with object oriented systems) because the great encapsulation related to the concept of agent allows an easier identification and disposition of reusable parts. In this paper we discuss our approach to the pattern reuse that is a phase of a more comprehensive approach to agent-oriented software design.
Click here to view our approach to the Patterns for Agents.
Click here to view the Meta-Pattern Languages
Click here to view the current Repository composition.
Agent Factory (AF) is a
project developed by ICAR/CNR in collaboration with Agentcities.NET organization; the project
aims supporting agent-oriented design process during design and programming
phases. AF manages a repository of patterns for agent; these can be reused and
composed (bottom-up approach) in order to build a multi agent system. AF
supports the code generation for some FIPA compliant agent platform (Jade and
FIPAOS).
Click here to view some screenshots
Click here to download the application