1,721,072 research outputs found
Introducing Motivations in Design Pattern Representation
No full textDesign pattern formalization is aimed at encouraging the use of design patterns during the design phase. In literature many approaches focuses on providing solutions with a graphical notation and complementary text, typically composed by a static and a dynamic definitions. The weak point it the flexibility to customize the generic solution to the specific context of use. This paper proposes a criterion to motivate design pattern selection and reuse. Designer is supported with a fine-grained technique for balancing pattern and problem forces in order to choose among alternative implementations
Introduction
No full textNowadays, software engineers face a wide range of particular application domains such as electronic commerce, enterprise resource planning, mobile computing, self-organisation, pervasive and adaptive computing, etc. The resulting heterogeneity and required functionalities call for complex systems and open architectures that may evolve dynamically over time so as to accommodate new components and meet new requirements. This is probably one of the main reasons why the agent metaphor and agent-based computing are gaining momentum in these areas
Special track on: Agent-oriented software engineering methodologies and systems
No full textEditorial Message: Special Track on Agent-Oriented Software Engineering Methodologies and System
Processes Engineering and AOSE
No full textAgent-oriented methodologies like ADELFE, ASPECS, INGENIAS, MaSE, PASSI, Prometheus, SODA, or Tropos propose development formulae with their own specificities. Analyzing them is the responsibility of the Process Engineering discipline, which is currently one hot research line in software engineering. The analysis makes it possible to construct a catalogue of current processes, assessing their utility and enabling their reuse. Additionally, the study may lead to the modification or improvement of existing development processes, perhaps combining fragments from solutions coming from the different methodologies.
In this paper, we first provide a general view over the area of Software Process Engineering (SPE), then focus on the most recent developments of SPE in the Agent-Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) field
The IEEE-FIPA Standard on the Design Process Documentation Template
No full textNowadays, it is a matter of fact that a “one-size-fit-all” methodology or design process useful and fitting every kind of problem, situation, or design context does not exist. (Situational) Method Engineering (SME) discipline aims at determining techniques and tools for developing ad hoc design methodologies. SME mainly and highly focuses on the reuse of portion of existing design processes or methodologies (the method fragments). In order to have means for creating SME techniques and tools and for creating new design processes, some key elements are needed: a unique process metamodel for representing design processes and fragments, a proper template for the description of AO design processes and for the description of method fragments. The FIPA Design Process Documentation and Fragmentation Working Group gave an important contribution to the SME research area in terms of the IEEE-FIPA standard Design Process Documentation Template (DPDT) that provides a standardized template for the description of design processes
A Possible Approach to the Development of Robotic Multi-Agent Systems
No full textThe design of a an agent system for robotics is a problem that involves aspects coming from many different disciplines (robotics, artificial intelligence, computer vision, software engineering). The most difficult part of it often consists in producing and tuning the algorithms that incorporates the robot behavior (planning, obstacle avoidance, ) and abilities (vision, manipulation, navigation, ). It is frequent that the reuse of this parts is left to a copy and paste procedure from previous applications to the new one. In so doing many problems could arises. We propose a comprehensive approach for multi-agent systems oriented to robotics applications that uses a complete design methodology supported by a specific design tools and a pattern repository that interacting each other and with the designer allow the production of a coherent design that easily incorporates patterns coming from previously experienced features and automatically produces a large part of the final code 1
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Arguments and Artifacts for Dispute Resolution
Full text linkIn a social context cultural differences, individual interests, and partial awareness are often the causes of disputes. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is usually considered to be alternative to litigation, and can also be used to allow disputing parts to find an agreement. A dispute resolution is not an easy task and usually involves more entities including mediator or arbitrator with multiple dialogue sessions.
In the paper we focus the attention on dispute resolution system in artificial society proposing a model and a technology to support the persuasive processes. The persuasion is the principal form dialogue used in an ADR system where agents exchange arguments to support their positions.
The general architecture proposed to build an ADR system exploits two artifacts abstractions — Co-Argumentation Artifact and Dialogue Artifact — that provide the right abstractions to coordinate the agents during the argumentative process. The technological support for the artifacts is provided by the TuCSoN infrastructure, also exploiting a meta-programming technique in Prolog. Finally, in the paper we present a simplified example of the execution of a persuasion dialogue ground on the commitments
Process Documentation Standardization: An Initial Evaluation
Full text linkThe creation of new ad-hoc methodologies through the Situational Method Engineering needs the process fragments to be defined and available. That means it is necessary to previously define and extract such fragments from the global development process. So, it is important to provide the means of documenting the whole process from which fragments will be obtained. This paper presents an experimental evaluation of the methodologies documentation template proposed by the IEEE FIPA Design Process Documentation and Fragmentation working group. The template will be used for documenting three different agent-oriented methodologies in order to evaluate the template's strengths and weakness
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