A methodology for the protocol-centered design of agent-based systems

This article presents a novel methodology for the protocol-centered design of agent-based systems. Agents are understood as concurrently interacting autonomous, proactive objects in a distributed environment, The introduced methodology is diagram based and focuses on the initial phase of specifying and exploring communication protocols between agents. It is based on the derivation of protocols from actors and their events. We additionally provide design rules and conventions for the seamless transition of the specification to an implementation. The concepts are presented through an example from Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) which gives the specification of autonomous, automated guided vehicles (AGVs) moving parts between manufacturing workstations.