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Fig. 9.
The customized ISReal agent diagram
Jade (to avoid overhead and simplify extensions). The model-to-text transformation is
done using XPand. The separation of the transformation into modules leverages exten-
sibility and eases maintenance. As explained in Section 4.5, the data model is based
on Ecore and we rely on the capability of EMF to automatically serialize types to Java
code (white arrow). Since we want to focus on the overall approach, the details of the
transformations and the Jadex PSM will not be discussed in this paper. The blue parts
in Figure 8 depict (i) the ISReal extension of B
OCHICA
, (ii) the ISReal extension to
the Jadex QVT and XPand base transformations, (iii) the generation of configuration
files for the ISReal agent component, and (iv) an additional ISReal library that enables
Jadex for the ISReal platform. The ISReal library implements the interfaces of the IS-
Real agent environment for passing incoming perception events and user queries to
the agents running in the Jadex platform. Moreover, it includes Jadex into the start-up
procedure of the distributed ISReal platform and provides an ISReal capability which
makes a Jadex agent to an ISReal agent. For example, it equips an agent with a LSE.
Figure 8 b) depicts a XPand-based aspect-oriented mapping rule which replaces the
original mapping rule of the Jadex base transformation for invoking a standard web
service by the invocation of an ISReal object service. The first part sets the variable
bindings of the object service and the second part does the actual invocation through a
helper class provided by the ISReal library.
5.4
ISReal View
The technical details explained so far are (in the ideal case) not visible to the end user.
He is guided by a methodology and uses graphical diagrams to design a MAS for a
certain use case. The graphical front end abstracts from technical details such as (i) the
integration of Jadex into the ISReal platform, (ii) the invocation of ISReal object ser-
vices in Jadex, or (iii) the evaluation of SPARQL queries in the LSE. Figure 9 depicts
the ISReal agent diagram which contains, in addition to the standard B
OCHICA
agent
diagram artifacts, the ISReal sensor and the LSE. Placing an ISReal agent implies, com-
pared to a plain agent, the generation of an ISReal agent component which integrates
