A Systematic Approach for Detecting Defects in Agent Designs (Doctoral Consortium)

Multi-agent systems are increasingly being used in complex applications due to features such as autonomy, proactivity, flexibility, robustness and social ability. Thus, techniques to detect and avoid defects in such systems are valuable. In particular, it is desirable to detect issues as early as possible in the development lifecycle. This research aims to find ways in which to ensure the correctness of agent design artefacts against different point-of-reference: requirements and interaction protocols. The proposed approach will be applicable at design time not requiring source code or a formal design model.