Agent-oriented methods for engineering complex distributed systems

摘要

The ubiquitous diffusion and usage of the Internet, the emergence of ad-hoc mobile computing and, more recently, the introduction of Internet of Things infrastructures, have promoted the development of new kinds of distributed applications characterized by a huge number of participants, high decentralization of software components and code mobility, which are characteristics typical of application domains such as distributed information retrieval, content management and distribution, e-Commerce, and mobile sensing and computing. In these application domains, the agent-based computing paradigm (Luck et al, 2004) has shown to be effective and suitable for the analysis, design and implementation of dynamic and smart distributed software systems. In particular, in the context of the agent-oriented software engineering (AOSE), several agent-oriented methodologies along with programming frameworks and development tools have been defined to support the development lifecycle of distributed complex systems in terms of multi-agent systems (MAS). On the basis of an in-depth analysis of such methodologies (Fortino and Russo, 2012), the key elements for the provision of an effective development of distributed MAS are: suitable agent models for distributed computation, development methodologies, and supporting CASE tools. Moreover, novel emerging application domains that can be effectively supported by agent-oriented development methods are Smart Grids and Smart Cities, which have a large-scale, complex and distributed component-based organization.