Modeling organizational rules in the multi-agent systems engineering methodology

Abstract

Recently, two advances in agent-oriented software engineering have had a significant impact: the identification of interaction and coordination as the central focus of multi-agent systems design and the realization that the multi-agent organization is distinct from the agents that populate the system. This paper presents detailed guidance on how to integrate organizational rules into existing multiagent methodologies. Specifically, we look at the Multi-agent Systems Engineering models to investigate how to integrate the existing abstractions of goals, roles, tasks, agents, and conversations with organizational rules and tasks. We then discuss how designs can be implemented using advanced as well as traditional coordination models.