Multiagent systems specification by UML statecharts aiming at intelligent manufacturing

ABSTRACT

Multiagent systems are a promising new paradigm in computing, which are contributing to various fields. Many theories and technologies have been developed in order to design and specify multiagent systems, however, no standard procedure is used at present. Industrial applications often have a complex structure and need plenty of working resources. They require a standard specification method as well. As the standard method to design and specify software systems, we believe that one of the key words is simplicity for their wide acceptance. In this paper, we propose a method to specify multiagent systems, namely with UML statecharts. We use them for specifying almost all aspects of multiagent systems, because we think that it is an advantage to keep everything in one type of diagram.We apply our method to different domains, namely to robotic soccer and a network application. This approach enables not only standardized design of multiagent systems, but also almost automatic translation of the specification into a running implementation (here: into Prolog). Moreover, the verification or formal analysis is feasible, because of the rigidly formal manner of the system specification. We concentrate on the formal specification of multiagent systems in general and its application to robotic soccer, which is already implemented, and to networking. The application to different domains---with homogeneous or heterogeneous agents---corroborates the generality of the proposed approach.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.2 Design Tools and Techniques
          Subjects: State diagrams

Additional Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
        I.2.11 Distributed Artificial Intelligence
            Subjects: Multiagent systems

General Terms:
Design

Keywords:
agent-based software engineering, design implementation, intelligent manufacturing, methodologies for specification, multiagent systems, robotic soccer (RoboCup), statecharts, unified modeling language, validation standards for agents and multiagent systems