Agent modelling with petri nets

International Journal of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, 2002

Cooperative Information Systems (CIS) become relevant to integrate different kinds of systems so as to work collaboratively for a common goal. CIS are considered by nature as dynamic systems, and one of the most difficult problems related to the dynamic of the system is how to model and control simultaneously multiple interactions among agents in a friendly way. Consequently, expressiveness becomes a problem related to the representation so far, the similar systems cope neither with the problem of expressiveness nor with multiple interactions in a satisfactory way. We propose in this paper, an integrated methodology based on Coloured Petri Nets (CPN) in order to model the interaction mechanism in a CIS and reduce the associated complexity in the representation of the dynamic of the system. This methodology provides us great advantages in the representation and reasoning for the interaction mechanism modeled in CIS. The methodology integrates mainly: a) the action basic loop in order to represent the system interactions and to model organization conversations, b) the CPN in the interaction design and system simulation, c) the communicative acts of FIPA (Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents), including in the Agent Communication Language Specification.

2012

A multi-agent system can be studied as a concurrent, asynchronous, stochastic and distributed computer system. These characteristics of multi-agent systems make them also a discrete-event dynamic system; it is, therefore, important to analyze the behavior of such system to ensure that it terminates correctly and satisfies other important properties. Several analytical methodologies have been used to study multi-agent system, particularly Petri nets. Petri nets have a well-defined mathematical structure that can be leveraged to provide formal analysis on discrete-event systems. In this work, we propose an automatic transformation to model multi-agent systems using Colored Petri nets.

Proc. of 2nd International …, 2004

In a multi-agent system (MAS), agent interactions are established through exchanging messages following interaction protocols. Most current agent interaction protocols are hard-coded within agents during the agent designing, and this feature greatly reduces the flexibility of the agent interactions. In this paper, we present a Colored Petri Nets (CPNs) based approach to form flexible interaction protocols between agents. Through this approach, agents can analyse a protocol and check whether the protocol is "understandable" and advantageous to the objectives of agents.

Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, 2001

Cooperative Information Systems (CIS) become relevant to integrate different kinds of systems so as to work collaboratively for a common goal. CIS are considered by nature as dynamic systems, and one of the most difficult problems related to the dynamic of the system is how to model and control simultaneously multiple interactions among agents in a friendly way. Consequently, expressiveness becomes a problem related to the representation so far, the similar systems cope neither with the problem of expressiveness nor with multiple interactions in a satisfactory way. We propose in this paper, an integrated methodology based on Coloured Petri Nets (CPN) in order to model the interaction mechanism in a CIS and reduce the associated complexity in the representation of the dynamic of the system. This methodology provides us great advantages in the representation and reasoning for the interaction mechanism modeled in CIS. The methodology integrates mainly: a) the action basic loop in order to represent the system interactions and to model organization conversations, b) the CPN in the interaction design and system simulation, c) the communicative acts of FIPA (Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents), including in the Agent Communication Language Specification.

2000

Software design and implementation using mobile agents are nowadays involved in a scepticism halo. There are researchers who question its utility because it could be a new technology that does provide new skills but it could introduce new problems. Security and performance are the most critical aspects for this new kind of software. In this paper we present a formal approach to analyse performance for this class of systems. Our approach is integrated in the early stages of the software development process. In this way, it is possible to predict the behaviour without the necessity to carry out the complete implementation phase. To show the approach, we model a software retrieval service system in a pragmatic way, later, the corresponding formal model is obtained and analysed in order to study performance.

Mathematics and Computers in Simulation, 2006

This article presents an original method using high level Petri nets for the specification and design of interactive systems. We suggest an agent oriented architecture based on the classic components of an interactive application (application, dialogue control, interface with the application). Our approach is validated via the specification and design of a human-machine interface used in the supervision of a land-based transport system (Bus/Tramway).

This paper introduces jCPN, a Java toolset which enables visual modelling and distributed execution of complex Coloured Petri Net models. jCPN relies on Java for net annotations and kernel implementation. Distribution support depends on agents which facilitate partitioning and execution of a large model on a parallel virtual machine built over Internet. The paper describes the design of jCPN and illustrates its concrete use through examples.

Abstract:-This paper presents a Petri net approach to modeling communications of mobile software agents in multiagent systems. Mobile agents are conceptualized in Petri net semantics by formalizing in terms of basic agent template. The proposed software agent components constitute the elements and building blocks of the distributed mobile agent systems. A basic agent template is formalized as an entity consisting of a set of actions, a set of rules, which govern the agent communications.

The dynamic nature of cooperative agent environment makes considerably more difficult the task of modeling permanent interactions among agents. This problem becomes rather hard if more than two agents are involved. So far, traditional approaches deal with the problem of modeling interactions in static conditions and commonly with only two agents participating concurrently in cooperative tasks. The complex nature of such dynamic environments, such as e-business, demands to build adequate tools to manage multiple interactions with efficient expressiveness. This problem remains one of the most important challenges in cooperative multi-agents system research. In this paper, it is proposed an application of an efficient methodology based on Coloured Petri Nets to model multiple interactions, which takes into account the expressiveness as its most important property. The model was tested within a business to business (B2B) environment where concurrent interactions among buyers, suppliers and the marketplace constitute a dynamic process that need to be permanently monitored and controlled. This methodology provides great advantages in the representation and reasoning for the interaction mechanism modeled in cooperative information systems. The methodology integrates mainly: a) the action basic loop in order to represent the system interactions and to model organization conversations, b) the use of CPN for the interaction modeling and system simulation, c) the communicative acts of FIPA (Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents), included in the Agent Communication Language Specification.

Journal of Software Engineering and Applications, 2010

In this paper, we present a new formalism for Modeling Multi Agent Systems (MAS). Our model based a PN is able to describe not only not the internal state of each agent modeled but also its behavior. Owing to these features, one can model naturally the dynamic behavior of complex systems and the communication between these entities. For this, we propose mathematical definitions attached to firing transitions. To validate our contribution, we will deal with real examples.