A Modeling Methodology for Conflict Control in Multi-Agent Systems

- Multi-agent systems (MASs) have become an important topic in distributed systems research. These distributed multi-agent systems call for special software modeling methods that explicitly support key system properties such as resource constraints and control of conflicts. Although there have been some system modeling techniques to support MASs design and automatic analysis, most state-of-the-art techniques have not distinguished potential conflicts from real conflicts during the design stage. To solve this problem, we define a new concept, called "potential arcs," which is integrated into colored Petri net modeling to support the modeling of MASs. We present a modeling methodology based on the potential arc concept and illustrate the methodology with a case study, including some associated model analysis.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: IJSEKE
• Authors: Jiexin Lian, Sol M. Shatz
• Keywords: IJSEKE 2008, Multi-agent Systems, Potential Arc, Software Modeling Methods