Um processo para desenvolvimento de sistemas multiagentes abertos utilizando o Framework Institutional Environments baseado na metodologia Gaia

Abstract

The creation of a process aimed at standardizing a sequence of tasks that must be performed to reach a goal. In software engineering, the development process is used with claim of achieving higher quality in products made it in the development stage, through a sequence of steps that comprise activities, which comprise stages such as, definition of the application domain, requirements gathering, design analysis, development and system's test. Each development paradigm has its specificities. Therefore requires processes that deal these specificities. The development of multi-agent systems has been growing quickly, thus, several tools have been proposed to aid the development of these systems. However, developing such a system is still a challenge, especially when dealing with open multi-agent systems. The Institutional Environments is a framework for developing open multi-agent systems whose main goal is to promote an institutional approach with mechanisms that maintain the autonomy of the agents, without having to force them to follow strictly the rules of the system. This work aims to define and present a development process for open multi-agent systems using the framework Institution Environments as a resource for the development stage. The process presented here is based on the Gaia methodology, which provides a context based on the assignment of roles to agents in order to interact with the system. Also introduces the idea of organization within the system environment, where agent members must follow the rules to accomplish their activities. However, in its original way, Gaia does not fit the development of open multi-agent systems precisely due these rules, which restrict the behavior of other agents. Is also presented a demonstration of using this process for the development of the Mercado Livre as an open multi-agent system with institutional approach.