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Role-based software agent interaction models: a survey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2010

Giacomo Cabri ,
Letizia Leonardi ,
Luca Ferrari  and
Franco Zambonelli
Giacomo Cabri*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Via Vignolese 905 – 41125 Modena, Italy; e-mail: giacomo.cabri@unimore.it; letizia.leonardi@unimore.it
Letizia Leonardi*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Via Vignolese 905 – 41125 Modena, Italy; e-mail: giacomo.cabri@unimore.it; letizia.leonardi@unimore.it
Luca Ferrari*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze e Metodi dell’Ingegneria, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Via G. Amendola 2 – 42100 Reggio Emilia, Italy; e-mail: fluca1978@gmail.com; franco.zambonelli@unimore.it
Franco Zambonelli*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze e Metodi dell’Ingegneria, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Via G. Amendola 2 – 42100 Reggio Emilia, Italy; e-mail: fluca1978@gmail.com; franco.zambonelli@unimore.it
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Abstract

The role concept represents a useful approach that has been exploited in different agent-based systems, in particular applied to interactions between agents. There are some requirements that are important for the development of agent-based applications using roles, for instance the support for the analysis, the design and the implementation phases. We have considered and compared different role-based proposals in the literature, and this paper presents a survey of the most spread ones. We explain each proposal and point out if and how it meets the identified requirements. Far from deciding the best proposal, our aim is to present the advantages and drawbacks of several proposals to designers and developers, so that they can make the best choice with regard to their needs.

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Type
Articles
Information
The Knowledge Engineering Review , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , December 2010 , pp. 397 - 419
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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