Final Year Software Project

Agent Modeling Tool-Kit

Phase I Report

Name :XYZ

Department of Computer Science National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences - FAST Islamabad, Pakistan 2010

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3 1.1 Purpose of Project........................................................................................................5 1.2 Objective of AMT..........................................................................................................5 1.3 Scope of the Project:....................................................................................................5 1.3.1 1.3.2 1.4.1 In-Scope..............................................................................................................5 Out-Scope..........................................................................................................5 Need of AUML.....................................................................................................6

1.4 Difference between UML and AUML:............................................................................5

Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION
Objects interact with each other through UML diagrams such as system sequence diagrams, domain models, activity diagrams etc. Objects are not autonomous, they do not store history nor do they have learning power where as agents are anything that perceives from its environment through sensors and acts on the environment through actuators. They are mobile, autonomous and can learn from their systems. What are Agents? An agent is an encapsulated computer system that is situated in some environment and that is capable of flexible, autonomous action in that environment in order to meet its design objectives. The agents and objects have similar behaviour and properties like inheritance, polymorphism and other object oriented programming concepts. Apart from the normal encapsulation, agents encapsulate their behaviour within themselves. If we look at the interaction then agent has more complex interaction messages to communicate among agents. Objects have a centrally organization while agents allows distributed computing. We can destroy objects whenever we want but in the case of agents they have the liberty to created or destroyed. The behaviour of the agent is dynamic while the behaviour of object is static. Object uses ad-hoc messages for the message passing while the agents use ACL (Agent communication language). A lot of work has been done on objects and their interactions. Objects interaction is shown through UML notations many tools have been build to develop UML diagrams such as Visio, Dia, OpenTool, Poseidon, MetaEdit, XFig, and ArgoUML. UML notations cannot be used for representing agent interaction as although UML has covered 9 forms of modeling diagrams it still lacked constructs to expresses goals, agent, group, multicasting, generative functions, such as cloning, birthing, reproduction, parasitism and symbiosis and Emergent phenomena. In order to represent agent interaction UML was extended to AUML. Currently there are some UML tools that are supporting AUML notations such as Visio, Dia, MagicDraw and Fujaba. But currently a lot of work is being done on AUML toolkits and agent interaction. There are many plug-INS which we can use agent interaction modelling in Eclipse java with the help of EJIP (Eclipse Jade Integration Plug-in) provide the essential tools for developing distributed agent application interacting with JADE platform through Eclipse and derived tools. The plug-in itself provides a flexible library

with enhanced and handle able data structures that allows the developer to simply manage JADE environment objects, agents, containers and platforms. With the help of EJIP user can starting a new local agent into a specific local container, migrating a local agent between local containers, cloning, thawing and add remote agent. The problem with this plug-in is that they are difficult to install and if user reinstall eclipse he loses all his locally installed plug-in.

Agent Modelling Tool-Kit is developed to achieve the mentioned criteria. The primary role of this toolkit is to: Drag- drop agents to built interactions between them. Develop AUML diagrams. Generate Java code of agent interaction. Allow users to add their agents in the tool-kit.

Backbone of Agent Modeling Tool-Kit is JADE upon which our agents will be developed as its follows FIPA standards.

1.1 Purpose of Project

The purpose of this project is to make life of a developer easier and to save his time by not re-inventing an agent that is already built all he has to do is just drag-drop agents. As our toolkit will be open source the designers can edit and use our agents according to their requirements. Our toolkit will for the first time provide designers with built-in agents along with the designing interface for developing of AUML diagrams and will also generate code of agent interactions done in the AUML diagram formed by the designer.

1.2 Objective of AMT

We studied different research work and found that no one has yet provided built-in agents and that none of the current toolkits are open sources so we want to make a flexible toolkit in which designer doesnt have problem editing agents and using them and once they have made a new or modified agent they can add that agent to our toolkit resulting in continuous updating of our toolkit which will be advantage for other designers as they will get a variety of agents to choice from.

1.3 Scope of the Project:

1.3.1 In-Scope 1. It will work in a java environment as our agents are being made on JADE and Net beans. 2. Agents added will have to be consistent with FIPA standards. 3. Code generation will be limited to the AUML diagram formed by designer. 1.3.2 Out-Scope 1. This toolkit will not work for projects outside AUML domain. 2. It will not support agents outside FIPA standards. 3. Diagrams not in scope of AUML cannot be designed in this toolkit.

1.4 Difference between UML and AUML:

UML is the notation used for representing objects where as AUML is the notation used for representing agents. UML consists of many types of modelling diagrams such as class (package), object, use case, sequence, collaboration, state chart, activity, component, and deployment. AUML consists of diagrams interactive modeling between agents and the message passing protocols between agents. AUML is similar to UML but AUML isnt restricted to use similar rules of UML.

1.4.1 Need of AUML UML although having covered 9 forms of modeling diagrams it still lacked constructs to expresses the following Goals Agent Group Multicasting Generative functions, such as cloning, birthing, reproduction Parasitism and symbiosis Emergent phenomena