Title: A stepwise refinement-based development of self-organising multi-agent systems: application to the foraging ants

Authors: Zeineb Graja; Frédéric Migeon; Christine Maurel; Marie-Pierre Gleizes; Ahmed Hadj Kacem

Addresses: Research Laboratory on Development and Control of Distributed Applications (ReDCAD), Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Sfax, Tunisia ' Toulouse Institute of Computer Science Research (IRIT), Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, France ' Toulouse Institute of Computer Science Research (IRIT), Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, France ' Toulouse Institute of Computer Science Research (IRIT), Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, France ' Research Laboratory on Development and Control of Distributed Applications (ReDCAD), Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Sfax, Tunisia

Abstract: This paper proposes a formal modelling for self-organising multi-agent systems (SOMAS) based on stepwise refinements, with the Event-B language and the temporal logic of actions (TLA). This modelling allows to develop this kind of systems in a more structured manner. In addition, it enables to reason, in a rigorous way, about the correctness of the derived models both at the local level and the global level. Our work is illustrated by the foraging ants case study.

Keywords: self-organising MAS; multi-agent systems; SOMAS; agent-based systems; foraging ants; formal verification; convergence; resilience; stepwise refinements; Event-B; temporal logic of actions; TLA; modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAOSE.2016.080891

International Journal of Agent-Oriented Software Engineering, 2016 Vol.5 No.2/3, pp.134 - 166

Received: 25 Nov 2015
Accepted: 11 Aug 2016
Published online: 10 Dec 2016 *

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