Interoperability rules for heterogenous multi-agent systems: Levels of conceptual interoperability model applied for multi-agent systems

Multi-agent systems (MAS) are a promising technology for solving the challenges posed by the trend towards increasing digitalization — Industrie 4.0, Industrial Internet of Things, Cyber-Physical Systems or Smart Grids. In spite of this promise and many showcases and prototypes, multi-agent systems are not widely applied in industry nowadays. Reasons for this are for example lacking trust in the technology and special demand for safety and security in these domains. To address these topics, the Levels of Conceptual Interoperability Model is applied on heterogeneous multi-agent systems. Additionally interoperability rules are introduced for enhancing the interoperability of MAS. It is further outlined how such rules can be used for unit testing single agents and for runtime verification.