Software engineering is concerned with the development and evolution of high-quality software systems in a systematic, controlled, and efficient manner. Software engineers are concerned with safety and reliability of the product as well as the cost and schedule of the development process. The lectures and the group projects will cover all aspects of the software life cycle, from development team management, problem specification and analysis, system design techniques, implementation and documentation practices, testing, to maintenance and evaluation of the final product.

Uml Distilled A Brief Guide To The Standard Object Modeling Language

As the number of computing devices embedded into engineered systems continues to rise, there is a widening gap between the needs of the user to control aggregates of devices and the complex technology of individual devices. Spatial computing attempts to bridge this gap for systems with local communication by exploiting the connection between physical locality and device connectivity. A large number of spatial computing domain specic languages (DSLs) have emerged across diverse domains, from biology and recongurable computing, to sensor networks and agent-based systems. In this paper, we develop a framework for analyzing and comparing spatial computing DSLs, survey the current state of the art, and provide a roadmap for future spatial computing DSL investigation.

Organizing the Aggregate: Languages for Spatial Computing

Understanding Agent Systems.

This paper proposes a global cooperative control framework to address leader-follower consensus of constraints subsystems of industrial plants, in which each subsystem is modeled as an agent and all the subsystems and networks of information flow construct a multiagent system. The focus of this paper is to solve the global leader-follower consensus for multiagent systems with input saturation via low-high gain feedback approach and parametric algebraic Riccati equation approach, in which the feedback gain design is distributed and decoupled from network topologies. By introducing appropriate assumptions, a class of low-high gain feedback protocol is designed based on the states of local neighbors to reach the global stability. It is proved in the sense of Lyapunov that, if the dwell time is larger than a positive threshold, the global leader-follower consensus for the closed-loop linear multiagent systems with input saturation under the derived topology containing a directed spanning tree can be achieved. The results are further extended to leader-follower consensus for nonlinear multiagent systems with the design of nonlinear low-high gain feedback protocol. As industrial applications of the proposed low-high gain scheduling approaches, the controller design of vibration in mechanical systems and satellite formation systems are revisited. Numerical simulations with cooperative control of industries subsystems show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Global Cooperative Control Framework for Multiagent Systems Subject to Actuator Saturation With Industrial Applications

Constraint and Integer Programming: Toward a Unified Methodology (Operations Research/Computer Science Interfaces, 27)

Agent-based systems have been the object of intense research over the past decade. While great theoretical progress has been made, the software frameworks for creating agent-based systems offer considerable variability in their capabilities and functionality. This paper introduces a reference model for agent-based systems. The purpose of a reference model is to provide a common conceptual basis for comparing systems and driving the development of software architectures and other standards. The Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents and other groups have advanced a number of agent standards, yet, to date, no comprehensive reference model has been presented for software systems composed of agents. This paper provides an overview of a reference model for agent-based systems. The agent systems reference model is the result of a multiyear effort studying software systems built with agents and software frameworks for implementing these systems. As part of this study, the team applied software reverse engineering techniques to perform static and dynamic analysis of operational agent-based systems. This analysis enabled identification of key common concepts across over one dozen different agent frameworks. To demonstrate its applicability, the reference model is then used to analyze a number of complete agent-based software systems. It is the belief of the authors that the reference model will be an essential prerequisite for future transition, deployment, and integration of agent-based systems.

Development and Specification of a Reference Model for Agent-Based Systems

The current state of the art in agent technology sees that several implementations of agent frameworks exist However, there is little agreement on the terms and concepts used to describe such systems, which is a significant barrier towards adoption of these technologies by industry, military and commercial entities A clear definition of terms and concepts at an appropriate level of abstraction is needed to facilitate discussion, evaluation and adoption of these emerging agent technologies In this paper, we argue that a reference model for agent-based systems can fill this need We discuss what a reference model is, why one is needed for agent-based systems, and our proposed methodology for creating such a reference model While the complete model is a work in progress, we present a preliminary version to motivate further discussion from the agents community at large It is our hope that ultimately a wider community of practice will assume responsibility for the standardization similar to the way that the well-known seven-layer Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model was a driving force underlying communications standards

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Towards a reference model for agent-based systems

: This paper addresses the importance of a unified ontology for a Battle Command (BC) system of systems (SoS) acquisition. A BC SoS is a Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Target Acquisition (C4ISR&TA) federation of large-scale, net-centric systems that are collaborative and interoperable and include heterogeneous multi-agency managed intelligent agents, humans-in-the-loop, and unmanned autonomous systems. As systems become increasingly complex, modularity becomes the key to reuse, scalability, and an open architecture. In addition, these design features are key to a manageable and affordable transformation from current to future capabilities across acquisition maturity phases over several decades of fielding. A new large-scale SoS cannot be built in isolation. It needs to evolve internally and accommodate external pressures to integrate or be interoperable with current systems of record. The development of a unifying ontology that spans multiple domains in the SoS is shown to be crucial, if not pivotal, to the success of SoS engineering efforts which are inherently multi-disciplinary and collaborative.

The Role of Ontology in System-of-Systems Acquisition

The slow adoption of agent-oriented methodologies as a paradigm for developing industry systems is due in part to their lack of integration and general-purpose use. There exists a need to define common patterns, relationships between components, and structural qualities that a reference architecture for agent-based systems would solve. However, there is little, if any, consensus on how to create a reference architecture for agent-based systems. This paper presents a methodology for developing a reference architecture that documents agent-based systems from different system viewpoints. Rather than the traditional approach of studying existing systems, the documentation methodology relies on forensic software analysis of agent frameworks (i.e., APIs and libraries for constructing agent systems). We demonstrate the methodology by describing the process used to create the Agent System Reference Architecture.

A methodology for developing an agent systems reference architecture

In this paper we describe our progress in deriving and demonstrating requirements and guiding the design of command and control (C2) decision aids to include distributed situation awareness. At the heart of C2 decision aids are the tools and algorithms necessary to plan operations, assess the availability and capability of assigned resources to carry out their tasks, and monitor the execution of the plan. Situation awareness capabilities require additional tools and algorithms which serve to improve the verification and validation of the operational C2 process, thereby increasing the level of robustness inherent in the planning, assessment and monitoring capabilities. In essence, situation awareness is built-in to ensure that semi-autonomous assets maintain task synchronization within allowed (planning) uncertainties, while execution of tasks may deviate from the nominal trajectories prescribed by a plan. Such deviations cannot be allowed to proceed unchecked and without warning should certain thresholds be exceeded. Specifically, this paper describes a situation awareness model and algorithm which address the envelope of uncertainties associated with key platform dynamics. These include: (a) models for expectations and uncertainties associated with position, actions, and the consumption of supplies, (b) algorithms to compute platform compliance with a planned course-of-action (CoA), and (c) protocols for dealing with platform non-compliant CoA.

Israel Mayk

Papers

Development and Specification of a Reference Model for Agent-Based Systems

Towards a reference model for agent-based systems

The Role of Ontology in System-of-Systems Acquisition

A methodology for developing an agent systems reference architecture

Distributed situation awareness for C2 platforms