Specification of role-based interactions components in multi-agent systems

Abstract

Roles are an important concept used for different purposes as the modeling of the organizational structure of multi-agent systems, the modeling of protocols, and as basic building blocks for defining the behavior of agents. Modeling interactions by roles brings several advantages, the most important of which is the separation of concerns by distinguishing the agent-level and system-level with regard to interaction. However, in open MASs, the composition of independently developed roles can lead to unexpected emergent interaction among agents. This paper identifies requirements for modeling role-based interactions, and presents a formal specification model of roles for complex interactions. Our approach aims to integrate specification and verification of roles into the Component Based Development approach. An interaction protocol example is given to illustrate our formal framework. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.