Multi-agent Systems
Product Lines
Camila Nunes, Elder Cirilo, Ingrid Nunes
{cnunes,ecirilo,ioliveira}@inf.puc-rio.br
Outline
• Introduction
• Background
• Related Work
• Case Studies
– ExpertCommittee
– OLIS
• GenArch
• Current Work
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Introduction
• Agent-oriented Software Engineering (AOSE)
– New software engineering paradigm
– Development of distributed complex applications
• Software Reuse
– Benefits
• Lower costs
• Reduced time-to-market
• Quality improvement
– AOSE methodologies
• Failed to adequately capture the reuse potential since
many of the developed methodologies center on the
development of specific software applications
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Introduction
• Software product lines (MAS)
– New trend of software reuse
– Build family of applications in a systematic method
• Only recent research has explored the integration
between SPL and Multi-agent Systems (MAS)
– Multi-agent Systems Product Lines (MAS-PL)
– SPL + MAS benefits
– Help on the industrial exploitation of agent technology
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Background
Reuse: From Ad-Hoc to Systematic
Focus was small-grained and opportunistic.
Results always fell short of expectations.
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Background
A software product line is a set of software-intensive systems
sharing a common, managed set of features that satisfy the specific
need of a particular market segment or mission and that are
developed from a common set of core assets in a prescribed way.
Software product line engineering is a paradigm to develop software
applications (software-intensive systems and software products) using
platforms and mass customisation.
A software platform is a set of software subsystems and interfaces that
form a common structure from which a set of derivative products can
be efficiently developed and produced.
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Background
pertain to
Market Strategy /
Application Domain
is satisfied by
share an
Architecture
Products
used to structure
are built from
Components
Product Lines:
Take economic advantage of commonality
Bound variability
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SPL Development Approaches
• Proactive
– Development of product lines considering all the products in
the foreseeable horizon
– A complete set of artifacts to address the product line is
developed from scratch
• Extractive
– SPL is developed starting from existing software systems
– Common and variable features are extracted from these
systems to derive an initial version of the SPL
• Reactive
– Incremental development of SPLs
– SPL artifacts address only a few products. When there is a
demand to incorporate new requirements or products, the
common and variable artifacts are incrementally extended in
reaction to them
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SPL Development Approaches
Domain
Analysis
Product 1
Architecture
Product 2
Project
SPL
Proactive Approach
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Product 3
SPL Development Approaches
Product 1
Product 1
Product 2
Product 2
Product 3
SPL
Extractive Approach
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Product 3
SPL Development Approaches
Product 1
Product 1
React
Product 2
SPL
Iterate
Product 2
Product 3
Product 3
+
SPL
Requirements for a
new product
instance, Product 4
Product 4
Reactive Approach
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Background
Methodology
Domain Analysis
Domain Design
FORM
Feature diagram with
composition rules
Subsystem, Process Model and
Module Models
[Pohl 2005]
Framework
Reusable, textual and
model-based
requirements, variability
model
Reference architecture, refined
variability model, mapping from
design artifacts to requirements
artifacts
PLUS
Requirements model
consisting of a use case
model and feature model
Static and dynamic models,
feature/class dependencies,
design of component-based
software architecture
MacMAS
Extension
Feature Model (features
are goals)
Acquaintance Organization,
Traceability and Role Models
[Dehlinger
2007]
Role Schema, Role
Variation Point
-
For the complete study, refers to http://www.inf.puc-rio.br/~ioliveira/maspl/
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Background
• Variability Types
– What can vary in a MAS-PL
• Besides the common variabilities of SPLs
– Alternative / Optional Agents
• Alternative / Optional Roles
• Alternative / Optional Capabilities
Believes
Goals
Plans
Agent also accomplish their goals by communicating with
other agents; thus, it is common that inserting new
capabilities affects other agents
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Related Work
• Josh Dehlinger and Robyn R. Lutz
– A Product-Line Requirements Approach to Safe Reuse in MultiAgent Systems
• Extensible agent-oriented requirements specification
template for distributed systems that supports safe reuse
– Software Product Line Approach
– Dynamically changing configurations of agents can be captured
and reused for future similar systems
• Consistency with the Gaia methodology
• Requirements area documented in two phases
– Role Schema
– Role Variation Point Schema
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Related Work
• Joaquin Pena et al
– Designing and managing evolving systems using a MAS
product line approach
• Evolving system: multiple
versions of the same
system
– Extension of MaCMAS
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Case Studies
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ExpertCommittee (EC)
• Conference Management System
• Typical web-based application
• Functionalities to support the complete process of
the management of conferences and workshops
– Paper submission
– Reviewing processes
• Examples
– EasyChair (http://www.easychair.org/)
– JEMS (https://submissoes.sbc.org.br/)
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EC Versions
Version
Version 1
Description
Typical web-based application (MAS-PL core)
Mandatory features that support the conference management process
Version 2
Release 1: Addition of the Reviewer role and the functionalities related
to it: accept/reject review and review paper.
Release 2: Addition of automatic suggestion of conferences to the
authors.
Release 3: Addition of message notifications to the system users
through email or SMS (alternative feature).
Release 4: Addition of deadline monitoring, to trigger specific actions
when they expire.
Release 5: Addition of automatic assignment of papers to committee
members review them.
Release 6: Addition of task management.
Version 3
Refactoring of Version 2
Improvement of the modularization of some agency features
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EC Feature Model
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EC Architecture
Chair
Role
BaseAction
Author
Role
Coordinator
Role
Chair
Actions
Author
Actions
Reviewer
Actions
TaskAction
Observer
Reviewer
Role
Committee
Member Role
GUI Layer
Observable
Observable
Service
Chair
ServiceImpl
Author
ServiceImpl
Reviewer
ServiceImpl
Environment
Agent
User Data
Agent
<<creates>>
Task
ServiceImp
l
User Agents
Business Layer
Data Layer
ConferenceDAO
Hibernate
PaperDAO
Hibernate
…
TaskDAO
Hibernate
Task
Agent
Notifier
Agent
Deadline
Agent
Database
MAIL
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SMS
EC Configuration File
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OLIS
• OLIS (OnLine Intelligent Services)
– Software product line of web-based systems
– Services (mandatory or optional)
• User Management
• Calendar
• Events Announcement
• Weather
– Handles different event types
• Generic
• Academic
• Travel
– Addition of Autonomous behavior to
• Provide Intelligent Services
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OLIS Feature Model
Feature
Dependencies
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OLIS Architecture
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OLIS Configuration
struts.xml
applicationContext.xml
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GenArch
• Model-driven product derivation tool
• Centered on the definition of three models
– Feature model
– Implementation model
– Configuration model
• The Approach Motivates
– Generation of initial versions of these models based
on a set of code annotations
– Refinement and adaptation of these initial versions to
enable the automatic product derivation
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GenArch
• Purpose of each model
– Feature Model
• Represents variabilities from the SPL architecture
– Architecture Implementation Model
• Offers a visual representation of code artifacts from
the SPL architecture
– Configuration Model
• Defines the mapping between features and code
artifacts
• Represents the configuration knowledge from a
generative approach
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GenArch
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Current Work (Ingrid)
• Method definition
– SPL Methodologies extensions
• Agent variability documentation and tracing
– Set of guidelines for including software agents into an existing
web system
• Web-MAS Architectural Pattern
SPL
Methodologies
MAS
Techniques
Documentation of
Agency Features
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Current Work (Elder)
Multi-level Customization in
SPL Derivation
Feature Model
Spring Model
Classes,
Aspectos ...
JADEX Model
XML
Produtos
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«IMPORT br::pucrio::inf::les::genarch::models::instance»
«EXTENSION br::pucrio::inf::les::genarch::models::Model»
«DEFINE Main FOR Instance»
«FILE "User.agent.xml"-»
(...)
<capabilities>
«LET domainModelElement(“mas",“user",domainModels) AS u»
«FOREACH u.capabilities AS c»
«c.fragment.content»
«FOREACH»
«ENDLET»
</capabilities>
(...)
«ENDFILE»
«ENDDEFINE»
Current Work (Camila)
• Evolving MAS-PL: An Empirical Study
– Motivation
• Increase several approaches of SPL
– MAS growing in size and complexity
• Evolution Scenarios of MAS
• Combining OO and OA
– Problem Definition
• MAS concerns may not no very well separated by existing
OO abstractions
• Evolution requirements of product line
• Construction of reusable and maintainable large MAS
– Proposal
• Implement and to compare quantitatively and qualitatively
(using metrics) MAS-PL implementations using OO and OA
• Analyze the impact of OO and OA in MAS-PL maintenance
scenarios
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References
• CIRILO, E.; KULESZA, U.; LUCENA, C. Genarch: A Model-Based
Product Derivation Tool. In Proceedings of Brazilian Symposium on
Software Components, Architectures and Reuse (SBCARS Tools
2007), Campinas – Brazil, 2007.
• CIRILO, E.; KULESZA, U.; COELHO, R.; LUCENA, C.; STAA, A.
Integrating Component and Product Lines Technologies. In
Proceedings of 10th International Conference on Software Reuse
(ICSR 2008), Beijing – China, 2008.
• CIRILO, E.; KULESZA, U.; LUCENA, C. A Product Derivation Tool
Base on Model-Driven Techniques and Annotations. Journal of
Universal Computer Science, Graz – 2008.
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References
• NUNES, I. O. ; NUNES, C. ; KULESZA, U. ; LUCENA, C. Developing
and Evolving a Multi-Agent System Product Line: An Exploratory
Study. In: 9th International Workshop on Agent-Oriented Software
Engineering, 2008, Estoril. 9th International Workshop on AgentOriented Software Engineering, 2008. p. 177-188.
• NUNES, I. O. ; KULESZA, U. ; NUNES, C. ; LUCENA, C. .
Documenting and Modeling Multi-agent Systems Product Lines. In:
International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge
Engineering, 2008, San Francisco. Proceedings of Twentieth
International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge
Engineering, 2008.
• NUNES,C.; KULESZA, U..; SANT'ANNA, C.; NUNES, I..; LUCENA, C.
On the Modularity Assessment of Aspect-Oriented Multi-Agent
Systems Product Lines: a Quantitative Study. In Simpósio
Brasileiro de Componentes, Arquiteturas e Reutilização de
Software, 2008.
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Questions?
Camila Nunes
[email protected]
Elder Cirilo
[email protected]
Ingrid Nunes
[email protected]