(No) more design patterns for multi-agent systems

Abstract

A multi-agent systems (MAS) can be used to solve several problems that permeate current complex software systems design, specially distributed systems. The MAS research community has extensively studied protocols, algorithms, methodologies, and architectures to create autonomous, adaptable, robust, and scalable systems. Despite the MAS research achievements, mainstream software developers do not leverage from this knowledge. Design patterns provide a simple, although effective, mechanism to disseminate knowledge about well proven solutions for recurrent software design problems. The widespread acceptance, by the software development industry, of design patterns shows their effectiveness. Some researchers attempted to identify MAS design patterns, what is a first step towards broader acceptance of MAS solutions. However, we believe that the MAS research community needs to embrace the identification of MAS design patterns in order to spread MAS solutions to the software industry.