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.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science Commenced Publication in 1973 Founding and Former Series Editors: Gerhard Goos, Juris Hartmanis, and Jan van Leeuwen Editorial Board David Hutchison Lancaster University, UK Takeo Kanade Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Josef Kittler University of Surrey, Guildford, UK Jon M. Kleinberg Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA Friedemann Mattern ETH Zurich, Switzerland John C. Mitchell Stanford University, CA, USA Moni Naor Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel Oscar Nierstrasz University of Bern, Switzerland C. Pandu Rangan Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India Bernhard Steffen University of Dortmund, Germany Madhu Sudan Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA, USA Demetri Terzopoulos New York University, NY, USA Doug Tygar University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA Moshe Y. Vardi Rice University, Houston, TX, USA Gerhard Weikum Max-Planck Institute of Computer Science, Saarbruecken, Germany 3390 Ricardo Choren Alessandro Garcia Carlos Lucena Alexander Romanovsky (Eds.) Software Engineering for Multi-Agent Systems III Research Issues and Practical Applications 13 Volume Editors Ricardo Choren Military Institute of Engineering Systems Engineering Department Pça General Tibúrcio, 80 - Praia Vermelha, 22290-270 - Rio de Janeiro/RJ - Brazil E-mail:
[email protected] Alessandro Garcia Carlos Lucena Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro Computer Science Department Rua Marquês de São Vicente, 225 - Gávea, 22451-900, Rio de Janeiro/ RJ, Brazil E-mail: {afgarcia, lucena}@inf.puc-rio.br Alexander Romanovsky University of Newcastle upon Tyne, School of Computing Science Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK E-mail:
[email protected] Library of Congress Control Number: 2005921208 CR Subject Classification (1998): D.2, I.2.11, C.2.4, D.1.3, H.5.3 ISSN 0302-9743 ISBN 3-540-24843-9 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. Springer is a part of Springer Science+Business Media springeronline.com © Springer-