Onto2MAS: An Ontology-Based Framework for Automatic Multi-Agent System Generation

Abstract

Multi-Agent Systems (MASs) have received muchattention in recent years because of their advantages on modelingcomplex distributed systems. Current modeling languages andmethodologies that support the construction of such systemsrequire the use of different tools to complete their design, development, and deployment. However, the development of MASsremains a complicated task, which demands time and specialprogramming skills. This paper proposes a framework, calledOnto2MAS, to provide developers an automatic generation ofMASs, based on an ontology to assist the easy definition of agentsinteraction and knowledge. With Onto2MAS, the complexityof the development process of MASs is reduced and an easyway to design uniform communication, messages exchanging, and generation of new knowledge in the system is provided. Todemonstrate the efficiency of our approach, we also present theresults of the experimental tests that we conducted with a firstimplementation of Onto2MAS, called OnToJade.