Performance evaluation of agents and multi-agent systems using formal specifications in Z notation

Abstract

Despite the plethora of frameworks and tools for developing agent systems, there is a remarkable lack of generalised methodologies for assessing their performance. Existing methods in the field of software engineering do not adequately address the unpredictable and complex nature of intelligent agents. We introduce a generic methodology for evaluating agent performance; the Agent Performance Evaluation (APE) methodology consists of representation tools, guidelines and techniques for organizing, categorizing and using metrics, measurements and aggregated characterizations of agent performance. The core of APE is the Metrics Representation Tree, a generic structure that enables efficient manipulation of evaluation-specific information. This paper provides a formal specification of the proposed methodology in Z notation and demonstrates how to apply it on an existing multi-agent system.