Derivation of Zeus Concepts from the GAIA: Methodology to Develop Multi-Agent Systems

Abstract

During the last years, agent oriented software engineering has received a growing interest. Several methodologies for analysis and design of multi-agent systems (MASs) have been proposed. However, most of these methodologies lack of a complete development process. At the same time, several development platforms have been developed. The development platforms allow the rapid development of MASs, and they can be divided in frameworks and development environments. A well-defined development process for MASs should involve all the stages of the MAS life cycle. Therefore, a method to derive the development platform concepts from the models of the analysis and design methodology is required. Towards this direction, in this work we present a method to derive the Zeus development environment concepts from the concepts of the Gaia agent-based analysis and design methodology. This method can be used in the implementation stage with the purpose of defining a complete development process for MASs