This book presents a coherent and well-balanced survey of recent advances in software engineering approaches to the development of realistic multi-agent systems (MAS). In it, the concept of agent-based software engineering is demonstrated through examples that are relevant to and representative of real-world applications. The 15 thoroughly reviewed and revised full papers are organized in topical sections on requirements engineering, software architecture and design, modeling, dependability, and MAS frameworks. Most of the papers were initially presented at the Second International Workshop on Software Engineering for Large-Scale Multi-Agent Systems, SELMAS 2003, held in Portland, Oregon, USA, in May 2003; three papers were added in order to complete the coverage of the relevant topics.

Advances in networking technology have revitalized the investigation of agent technologyasapromisingparadigmforengineeringcomplexdistributedsoftware systems. Agent technology has been applied to a wide range of application - mains, including e-commerce, human-computer interfaces, telecommunications, and software assistants. Multi-agent systems (MASs) and their underlying t- ories provide a more natural support for ensuring important properties such as autonomy, mobility, environment heterogeneity, organization, openness, and intelligence. As a consequence, agent-based systems are likely to provide new - proaches to dealing with the complexity of developing and maintaining modern software. However, developing robust large-scale agent-based systems will - quire new software engineering approaches. There are currently many methods and techniques for working with individual agents or with systems built using only a few agents. Unfortunately, agent-based software engineering is still in its infancy and existing software engineering approaches are unable to cope with large MASs. The complexity associated with a large MAS is considerable. When a huge number of agents interact over heterogeneous environments, various phenomena occur which are not as easy to capture as when only a few agents are working together. As the multiple software agents are highly collaborative and operate in networked environments, they have to be context-aware and deal with - vironment uncertainty. This makes their coordination and management more di?cult and increases the likelihood of exceptional situations, such as security holes, privacy violations, and unexpected global e?ects. Moreover, as users and softwareengineersdelegatemoreautonomytotheirMASs,andputmoretrustin their results, new concerns arise in real-life applications.

This book presents a coherent and well-balanced survey of recent advances in software engineering approaches to the design and analysis of realistic large-scale multi-agent systems (MAS). The chapters included are devoted to various techniques and methods used to cope with the complexity of real-world MAS. The power of agent-based software engineering is illustrated using examples that are representative of successful applications. The 16 thoroughly reviewed and revised full papers are organized in topical sections on agent methodologies and processes, requirements engineering and software architectures, modeling languages, and dependability and coordination. Most of the papers were initially presented at the 3rd International Workshop on Software Engineering for Large-Scale Multi-agent Systems, SELMAS 2004, held in Edinburgh, UK in May 2004 in association with ICSE 2004. Other papers were invited to complete coverage of all relevant aspects.

The papers selected for this volume present advances in software engineering approaches to develop dependable high-quality multi-agent systems. These papers describe experiences and techniques associated with large multi-agent systems in a wide variety of problem domains. They cover fault tolerance, exception handling and diagnosis, security and trust, verification and validation, as well as early development phases and software reuse.

The study of multi-agent systems (MAS) focuses on systems in which many intelligent agents interact with each other. These agents are considered to be autonomous entities such as software programs or robots. Their interactions can either be cooperative (for example as in an ant colony) or selfish (as in a free market economy). This book assumes only basic knowledge of algorithms and discrete maths, both of which are taught as standard in the first or second year of computer science degree programmes. A basic knowledge of artificial intelligence would useful to help understand some of the issues, but is not essential. The book’s main aims are: To introduce the student to the concept of agents and multi-agent systems, and the main applications for which they are appropriate To introduce the main issues surrounding the design of intelligent agents To introduce the main issues surrounding the design of a multi-agent society To introduce a number of typical applications for agent technology After reading the book the student should understand: The notion of an agent, how agents are distinct from other software paradigms (e.g. objects) and the characteristics of applications that lend themselves to agent-oriented software The key issues associated with constructing agents capable of intelligent autonomous action and the main approaches taken to developing such agents The key issues in designing societies of agents that can effectively cooperate in order to solve problems, including an understanding of the key types of multi-agent interactions possible in such systems The main application areas of agent-based systems

This book presents a coherent, well-balanced survey of recent advances in software engineering approaches to the design and analysis of realistic large-scale multi-agent systems (MAS). The chapters included are devoted to various techniques and methods used to cope with the complexity of real-world MAS. Reflecting the importance of agent properties in today's software systems, the power of agent-based software engineering is illustrated using examples that are representative of successful applications.

"This book provides theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings used by medical professionals in the implementation of multi-agent systems"--Provided by publisher.