Skip to main content
Log in

Challenges and Research Directions in Agent-Oriented Software Engineering

  • Published:
Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Agent-based computing is a promising approach for developing applications in complex domains. However, despite the great deal of research in the area, a number of challenges still need to be faced (i) to make agent-based computing a widely accepted paradigm in software engineering practice, and (ii) to turn agent-oriented software abstractions into practical tools for facing the complexity of modern application areas. In this paper, after a short introduction to the key concepts of agent-based computing (as they pertain to software engineering), we characterise the emerging key issues in multiagent systems (MASs) engineering. In particular, we show that such issues can be analysed in terms of three different “scales of observation”, i.e., in analogy with the scales of observation of physical phenomena, in terms of micro, macro, and meso scales. Based on this characterisation, we discuss, for each scale of observation, what are the peculiar engineering issues arising, the key research challenges to be solved, and the most promising research directions to be explored in the future.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. H. Abelson, D. Allen, D. Coore, C. Hanson, G. Homsy, T. Knight, R. Napal, E. Rauch, G. Sussmann, and R. Weiss, ''Amorphous computing,'' Commun. ACM, vol. 43, no. 5, pp. 43-50, 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  2. R. Albert, H. Jeong, and A. Barabasi, ''Error and attack tolerance of complex networks,'' Nature, vol. 406, pp. 378-382, 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  3. O. Babaoglu, H. Meling, and A. Montresor, ''Anthill: A framework for the development of agentbased peer-to-peer systems,'' in Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems, IEEE CS Press: Vienna (A), 2002, pp. 15-22.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Y. Bar-Yam, {atDynamics of Complex Systems}, Perseus Books: Reading (MA), 1992.

  5. L. Bass, P. Clements, and R. Kazman, {tiSoftware Architectures in Practice}, (2nd edn.). Addison-Wesley: Reading (MA), 2003.

  6. B. Bauer, J. P. Muller, and J. Odell, ''Agent UML: A formalism for specifying multiagent software systems,'' {tiInt. J. Software Eng. Knowl. Eng.} vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 207-230, 2001.

  7. F. Bergenti, G. Rimassa, A. Poggi, and P. Turci, ''Middleware and programming support for agent systems,'' in {cnProceedings of the 2nd International Symposium from Agent Theory to Agent Implementation}, Vienna (A), 2002, pp. 617-622.

  8. T. Berners-Lee, J. Hendler, and O. Lassila, ''The semantic web'', {tiSci. Am.}, 2001.

  9. A. Bieszczad, B. Pagurek, and T. White, ''Mobile agents for network Management,'' {tiIEEE Commun. Surv.} vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 2-9.

  10. E. Bonabeau, M. Dorigo, and G. Theraulaz, {tiSwarm Intelligence From Natural to Artificial Systems}, Oxford University Press: Oxford (UK), 1999.

  11. G. Booch, {tiObject-oriented Analysis and Design}, (2nd edn.), Reading (MA): Addison-Wesley, 1994.

  12. G. Bourianoff, ''The future of nanocomputing,'' {tiIEEE Comput.}, vol. 36 no. 8, pp. 44-53, 2003.

  13. J. P. Bowen and M. Hinchey, ''Seven more myths of formal methods,'' {tiIEEE Software} vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 34-41, 1995.

  14. S. Bussmann, ''Agent-oriented programming of manifacturing control tasks,'' in {tiProceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems}, IEEE CS Press: Paris (F), 1998, pp. 57-63.

  15. G. Cabri, L. Leonardi, and F. Zambonelli; ''Engineering mobile agent applications via contextdependent coordination,'' {tiIEEE Trans. Software Eng.} vol. 28, no. 11, pp. 1034-1051, 2002.

  16. L. Cernuzzi, and G. Rossi, ''On the evaluation of agent oriented methodologies,'' in {tiProceedings of the OOPSLA Workshop on Agent-oriented Methodologies}, Seattle (USA), 2002.

  17. P. Ciancarini, A. Omicini, and F. Zambonelli, ''Coordination technologies for Internet agents,''{tiNordic J. Comput.} vol.6, no. 3, pp. 215-240.

  18. P. Ciancarini, A. Omicini, and F. Zambonelli, ''Multiagent systems engineering: The coordination viewpoint,'' in {tiIntelligents Agents VI: Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages}, Vol. 1767 of LNAI, Springer-Verlag, 2000, pp. 250-259.

  19. P. Ciancarini and M. Wooldridge, ''Agent-oriented software engineering,'' in {tiProceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Agent-Oriented Software Engineering}, Vol. 1957 of LNCS, Springer-Verlag, 2001, pp. 1-24.

  20. CLIMA IV; ''4th International Workshop 'Computational Logic in Multi-agent Systems','' Fort Lauderdale (FL), 2004.

  21. M. Cossentino, L. Sabatucci, and A. Chella, ''A possible approach to the development of robotic multi-agent systems,'' in {tiProceedings of the 1st IEEE/WIC Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology}, IEEE CS Press: Halifax (CA), 2003.

  22. P. Costa, M. Migliavacca, G. P. Picco, and G. Cugola, ''Epidemic algorithms for reliable contentbased publish-subscribe: an evaluation,'' in {tiProceedings of the 24th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems}, IEEE CS Press: Tokio (J), 2004.

  23. M. Crovella and A. Bestavros, ''Self-similarity in world wide web traffic: Evidence and causes,'' {tiACM Sigmetrics}, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 160-169, 1996.

  24. DALT 2003, ''1st International Workshop 'Declarative Agent Languages & Technologies','' Melbourne (AU), 2003.

  25. Y. Demazeau and A. C. R. Costa, ''Populations and organizations in open multi-agent systems,'' in {tiProceedings of the 1st National Symposium on Parallel and Distributed AI}, Hyderabad (IN), 1996.

  26. D. Dori, ''What UML should be: Why significant UML change is unlikely,'' {tiCommunications of the ACM}, vol. 45, no. 11, pp. 82-85, 2002.

  27. M. Esteva, J. A. Rodriguez-Aguilar, C. Sierra, P. Garcia, and J. L. Arcos, ''On the formal specifi-cations of agent institutions,'' in {tiAgent-Mediated Electronic Commerce}, Vol. 1991 of LNCS, Springer Verlag, 2001, pp. 126-147.

  28. D. Estrin, D. Culler, K. Pister, and G. Sukjatme, ''Connecting the physical world with pervasive networks,'' {tiIEEE Pervasive Comput.} vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 59-69, 2002.

  29. P. Eugster, P. A. Felber, R. Guerraoui, and A. Kermarrec, ''The many faces of publish/subscribe,'' {tiACM Comput. Surv.} vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 114-131, 2003.

  30. J. Ferber and O. Gutknecht, ''A Meta-Model for the analysis and design of organizations in multiagent systems'. in {tiProceedings of the 3rd International Conference on the Multi-Agent Systems}, IEEE CS Press: Paris (F), 1998, pp. 128-135.

  31. I. Foster and C. Kesselman, {tiThe Grid: Blueprint for a New Computing Infrastructure}, Morgan Kaufmann: San Francisco (CA), 1999.

  32. Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents, ''FIPA specifications,'' 2002. http://www.fipa.org.

  33. M. S. Fox, ''An organizational view of distributed systems,'' {tiIEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cyber.} vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 70-80, 1981.

  34. M. Gervais, J. Gomez, and G. Weiss, ''A survey on agent-oriented software engineering researches,'' in: {tiMethodologies and Software Engineering for Agent Systems}, Kluwer: New York (NY), 2004.

  35. J. Giampapa and K. Sycara, ''Team-oriented agent coordination in the RETSINA multi-agent systems,'' in: {tiProceedings of the 1st International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems}. ACM Press: Bologna (I), 2002.

  36. J. J. Gomez-Sanz and J. Pavon, ''Agent-oriented software engineering with INGENIAS,'' in {tiProceedings of the 3rd Central and Eastern Europe Conference on Multiagent Systems}, vol. 2691 of LNCS, Springer Verlag, pp. 394-403.

  37. A. Hall, ''Seven myths of formal methods,'' {tiIEEE Software}, vol. 7, no. 5, pp. 11-19, 1990.

  38. C. Iglesias, M. Garijo, and J. Gonzales, ''A survey of agent-oriented methodologies,'' in {tiIntelligents Agents IV: Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages}, vol. 1555 of LNAI, Springer-Verlag, 1999, pp.317-330.

  39. N. R. Jennings, ''An agent-based approach for building complex software systems,'' {tiCommun. ACM}, vol. 44, no. 4, pp. 35-41.

  40. T. Juan, A. Pierce, and L. Sterling, ''ROADMAP: Extending the gaia methodology for complex open systems,'' in: {tiProceedings of the 1st ACM Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems}, ACM Press: Bologna (I), 2002, pp. 3-10.

  41. G. Kappel, S. Rausch-Schott, and W. Retschitzegger, ''Coordination in workflow management systems-A rule-based approach,'' in: {tiCoordination Technology for Collaboration Application}, vol. 1316 of LNCS, Springer Verlag, 1998.

  42. E.A. Kendall, ''Role modelling for agent system analysis, design, and implementation,'' in {tiProceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Agent Systems and Applications}, IEEE CS Press: Palm Springs (CA), 1999, pp. 204-218.

  43. J. Kephart, ''Software agents and the route to the information economy,'' {tiProc. Natl. Acad. Sci.} vol. 99, no. 3, pp. 7207-7213, 2002.

  44. J. Kephart and D. M. Chess, ''The vision of autonomic computing,'' {tiIEEE Comput.} vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 41-50, 2003.

  45. G. Kiczales, J. Lamping, A. Mendhekar, C.Maeda, C. V. Lopes, J. Loingtier, and J. Irwin, ''Aspectoriented programming,'' in {tiObject-Oriented Programming}, vol. 1241 of LNCS, Springer-Verlag, 1997, pp. 220-242.

  46. J. Kiniry and D. Zimmerman, 1997, ''A hands-on look at Java mobile agents,'' {tiIEEE Internet Computing} vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 21-33, 1997.

  47. D. Kinny, M. Georgeff, and A. Rao, 1996, ''A methodology and modelling technique for systems of BDI agents,'' in W. Van de Velde and J. W. Perram (eds.), {tiModelling Autonomous Agents in a Multi-Agent World}, vol. 1038 of LNAI. Springer-Verlag, 7th International Workshop (MAAMAW'96), 22-25 Jan. 1996, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 1996, pp. 56-71.

  48. H. Knublauch, ''Extreme programming of multi-agent systems,'' in {tiProceedings of the 1st International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems}, ACM Press: Bologna (I), 2002, pp. 704-711.

  49. M. Kolp, P. Giorgini, and J. Mylopoulos, ''A goal-based organizational perspective on multi-agent architectures,'' in {tiIntelligent Agents VIII: Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages}, vol. 2333 of LNAI, Springer-Verlag, 2002, pp. 128-140.

  50. T. Kuhn, {tiThe Structure of Scientific Revolutions}, The University of Chicago: Chicago (IL), 1962.

  51. J. Lind, ''Issues in agent-oriented software engineering,'' in {tiProceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Agent-Oriented Software Engineering}, vol. 1957 of LNCS, Springer Verlag, 2001.

  52. M. Luck, P. McBurney, and C. Priest, {tiAgent Technology: Enabling Next Generation Computing}, Agentlink II: Southampton (UK), 2003.

  53. M. Mamei and F. Zambonelli, ''Co-fields: A physically inspired approach to distributed motion coordination''. {tiIEEE Pervasive Comput.} vol. 3, no. 1, 2004.

  54. J. McCarthy, ''Programs with common sense,'' in M. L. Minsky (ed.), {tiSemantic Information Processing}, MIT Press: Boston (MA), 1958, pp. 403-418.

  55. B. Meyer, ''On formalism in specifications,'' {tiIEEE Software}, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 6-26, 1985.

  56. Y. Moses and M. Tennenholtz, ''Artificial social systems,'' {tiComput. Artif. Intell.} vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 533-562, 1995.

  57. P. Noriega, {atAgent-mediated Auctions: The Fishmarket Metaphor}, Barcelona (E): Ph.D Thesis, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, 1997.

  58. P. Noriega and C. Sierra, ''Electronic institutions: future trends and challenges,'' in {tiCooperative Information Agents VI}, vol. 2246 of LNCS, Springer-Verlag, 2002, pp. 14-17.

  59. J. Odell, H. V. D. Parunak, and C. Bock, ''Representing agent interaction protocols in UML,'' in {tiProceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Agent-Oriented Software Engineering}, vol. 1957 of LNCS, Springer-Verlag, 2001, pp. 121-140.

  60. OMG, ''CORBA 2.1 Specifications,'' 1997. www.corba.org.

  61. A. Omicini, ''On the semantics of tuple-based coordination models,'' in {tiProceedings of the 1999 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing}, ACM: San Antonio (TX), 1999, pp. 175-182.

  62. A. Omicini, ''SODA: Societies and infrastructures in the analysis and design of agent-based systems,'' in P. Ciancarini and M. J. Wooldridge (eds.), {tiAgent-Oriented Software Engineering}, vol. 1957 of LNCS, Springer-Verlag. 1st International Workshop (AOSE 2000), Limerick, Ireland, 10 June 2000. Revised Papers, 2001, pp. 185-193.

  63. A. Omicini, S. Ossowski, and A. Ricci, ''Coordination infrastructures in the engineering of multiagent systems,'' in {tiMethodologies and Software Engineering for Agent Systems}, Kluwer: New York (NY), 2004.

  64. A. Omicini and A. Ricci, ''Reasoning about organisation: shaping the infrastructure,'' {tiAI*IA Notizie}, vol. XVI, no. 2, pp. 7-16, 2003.

  65. A. Omicini and F. Zambonelli, ''Coordination for Internet application development,'' {tiAuton. Agents Multi-Agent Syst.}, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 251-269, 1999.

  66. D. Parnas, ''Predicate logic for software engineering,'' {tiIEEE Trans. Software Eng.}, vol. 19, no. 9, pp. 856-862, 1993.

  67. H. V. D. Parunak, ''Go to the ant: Engineering principles from natural agent systems,'' {tiAnn. Oper. Res.}, vol. 75, pp. 69-101, 1997.

  68. H. V. D. Parunak, ''Personal Communication,'' 2003.

  69. H. V. D Parunak and S. Brueckner, ''Entropy and self-organization, in multi-agent systems,'' in {tiProceedings of the 5th International Conference on Autonomous Agents}, ACM Press: Montreal (CA), 2001, pp. 124-130.

  70. H. V. D. Parunak and J. Odell, ''Representing social structures in UML,'' in {tiProceedings of the 5th International Conference on Autonomous Agents}, ACM Press, 2001, pp. 100-101.

  71. F. Bergenti and A. Poggi, ''Agent-oriented software construction with UML,'' in {tiThe Handbook of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering-volume 2-Emerging Technologies}, World Scientific: Singapore, 2002, pp. 757-769.

  72. A. Ricci, A. Omicini, and E. Denti, ''Virtual enterprises and workflow management as agent coordination issues,'' {tiInt. J. Coop. Inform. Syst.}, vol. 11, no. 3/4, pp. 355-379, 2002. Special Issue: Cooperative Information Agents-Best Papers of CIA 2001.

  73. M. Ripeani, A. Iamnitchi, and I. Foster, ''Mapping the gnutella network,'' {tiIEEE Internet Comput.}, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 50-57, 2002.

  74. A. Roli, M. Mamei, and F. Zambonelli, ''What can cellular automata tell us about the behaviour of large-scale agent systems,'' in {tiSoftware Engineering for Large Scale Agent Systems}, vol. 2603 of LNCS, Springer-Verlag, 2003.

  75. A. Rowstron and P. Druschel, ''Pastry: Scalable, decentralized object location and routing for largescale peer-to-peer systems,'' in {tiProceedings of the 18th IFIP/ACM Conference on Distributed Systems Platforms}, Heidelberg (D), 2001, pp. 329-250.

  76. S. Russel and P. Norvig,Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, Prentice Hall/Pearson Education International: Englewood Cliffs (NJ), (2nd Edn), 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  77. SEFM 2003, ''1st international conference software engineering and formal methods,'' Brisbane, Australia, 2003.

  78. M. Shaw, R. DeLine, D. Klein, T. Ross, D. Young, and G. Zelesnik, ''Abstractions for software architecture and tools to support them,'' {tiIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering}, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 314-335, 1995.

  79. M. Shaw and D. Garlan, {tiSoftware Architectures: Perspectives on an Emerging Discipline}, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs (NJ): Englewood Cliffs (NJ), 1996.

  80. O. Shehory and A. Sturm, ''Evaluation of modeling techniques for agent-based systems,'' in {tiProceedings of the 5th International Conference on Autonomous Agents}, ACM Press: Montreal (CA), 2001.

  81. W. Shen and D. Norrie, ''Agent-based systems for intelligent manufacturing: a state of the art survey,'' {tiInt. J. Knowl. Inform. Syst.}, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 129-156, 1999.

  82. W. Shen, B. Salemi, and P. Will, ''Hormone-inspired adaptive communication and distributed control for CONRO self-reconfigurable robots,'' {tiIEEE Trans. Robot. Auto.}, vol. 18, no. 5, pp. 1-12, 2002.

  83. T. Shinbrot and F. J. Muzzio, ''From noise to order,'' Nature, vol. 410, pp. 251-258, 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  84. Y. Shoham and M. Tennenholtz, ''Social laws for artificial agent societies: Off-line design,'' {tiArtif. Intell.}, vol. 73, 1995.

  85. J. S. Sichman, R. Conte, C. Castelfranchi, and Y. Demazeau, ''A social reasoning mechanism based on dependence networks,'' in {tiProceedings of the 12nd European Conference on Artificial Intelligence}, Amsterdam (NL), 1994, pp. 188-192.

  86. C. Sierra, J. Sabater, J. Agustí, and P. Garcia, ''Evolutionary programming in SADDE,'' in {tiProceedings of the 1st International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems}, ACM Press: Bologna (I), 2002, pp. 1270-1271.

  87. A. Sturm, D. Dori, and O. Shehory, ''Single model method for specifying multiagent systems,'' in {tiProceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems}, ACM Press: Melbourne (AU), 2003, pp. 121-128.

  88. D. Tennenhouse, ''Embedding the Internet: proactive computing,'' {tiCommun. ACM}, vol. 43, no. 5, pp. 36-42, 2000.

  89. C. Teuscher and M. Sipper,''Hypercomputation: Hype or computation?,'' {tiCommun. ACM}, vol. 45, no. 8, pp. 23-24, 2002.

  90. R. Trappl, P. Petta, and S. Payr, {tiEmotions in Humans and Artifacts}, MIT Press, 2003.

  91. A. Tripathi, T. Ahmed, R. Kumar, and S. Jaman, ''A coordination model for secure collaboration,'' in {tiProcess Coordination and Ubiquitous Computing}, CRC Press, 2002, pp. 1-20.

  92. 92. TRUST 2003, ''4th International Workshop on Trust in Open Agent Societies,'' Melbourne (AU), 2003.

  93. W. van der Hoek and M. Wooldridge, ''Towards a logic of rational agency,'' {tiLogic J. IGPL}, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 135-160, 2003.

  94. M. Viroli and A. Omicini, ''Coordination as a service: ontological and formal foundation,'' {tiElectron Notes Theor. Comput. Sci.}, vol. 68, no. 3, 2003.

  95. P. Wegner, ''Why interaction is more powerful than computing,'' {tiCommun. ACM}, vol. 40, no. 5, pp. 80-91, 1997.

  96. M. Wood, S. A. DeLoach, and C. Sparkman, ''Multiagent system engineering'', Int. J. Software Eng. Knowl. Eng., vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 231-258, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  97. M. Wooldridge, ''Agent-based software engineering,'' {tiIEE Proc. Software Eng.}, vol. 144, no. 1, pp. 26-37, 1997.

  98. M. Wooldridge, N. R. Jennings, and D. Kinny, ''The Gaia methodology for agent-oriented analysis and design,'' {tiAuton. Agents Multi-Agent Sys.}, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 285-312, 2000.

  99. T. Wootton, ''Local interactions predict large-scale patterns in empirically derived cellular automata'', Nature, vol. 413, pp. 841-844, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  100. B. Yu and M. P. Singh, ''Searching social networks,'' in {tiproceedings of the 2nd International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems}, ACMPress: Melbourne (AU), pp. 65-72.

  101. F. Zambonelli, ''Methodologies and software engineering for agent systems: SIG introduction and report of first meeting,'' {tiAgentlink News}, vol. 8, pp. 18-19, 2001.

  102. F. Zambonelli, ''SIG report: methodologies and software engineering for agent systems,'' {tiAgentlink News}, vol. 13, pp. 16-17, 2003.

  103. F. Zambonelli, F. Bergenti, and G. D. Marzo, ''SIG report: methodologies and software engineering for agent systems,'' {tiAgentlink News}, vol. 9, pp. 23-25, 2002.

  104. F. Zambonelli, N. Jennings, A. Omicini, and M. Wooldridge, ''Agent-oriented software engineering for internet applications,'' in {tiCoordination of Internet Agents: Models, Technologies, and Applications}, Springer-Verlag: Berlin (D), 2001a, pp. 326-346.

  105. F. Zambonelli, N. Jennings, and M. Wooldridge, ''Organizational abstractions for the analysis and design of multi-agent systems,'' in {tiProceeding of the 1st International Workshop on Agent-Oriented Software Engineering}, vol. 1957 of LNCS, Springer-Verlag, 2001b, pp. 253-252.

  106. F. Zambonelli, N. Jennings, and M. Wooldridge, ''Developing multiagent systems: The Gaia methodology,'' {tiACM Trans. Software Eng. Meth.}, vol. 12, no. 3, pp.417-470, 2003.

  107. F. Zambonelli and H. V. D. Parunak, ''Toward a change of paradigm in computer science and software engineering: A synthesis,'' {tiKnowl. Eng. Rev.}, 18, 2004.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Zambonelli, F., Omicini, A. Challenges and Research Directions in Agent-Oriented Software Engineering. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 9, 253–283 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:AGNT.0000038028.66672.1e

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:AGNT.0000038028.66672.1e

Navigation