Extending the UML for Designing Jack Agents

Michael Papasimeon and Clinton Heinze
Air Operations Division, DSTO

Friday, 25th May 2001
0930 - 1100

SEECS library (room B1.24)
University of Melbourne Computer Science Department
SEECS Building
221 Bouverie Street, Carlton.

Abstract:

Mainstreaming and industrialising agent technologies requires suitable methodological and technological support for the various engineering activities associated with managing the complexity of any software system development. Despite its origins in object oriented software engineering the UML provides a rich and extensible set of modelling constructs that can be applied to agent oriented technologies. This paper provides details of extensions to the UML for the design of agents that are to be implemented in the JACK language. These extensions provide the capacity to model the behaviour of agents for the purposes of design and, though the extensions are language specific, future generalisation and application to other agent languages can be supported as a industry-wide consensus about the nature of agency emerges over the next few years. This research builds on previously proposed extensions to the UML and moves a step closer to the goal of providing through-life engineering support to agent oriented systems development. This work is motivated by a pressing need to maintain, modify, develop and deploy existing and future agent based simulations of military operations for the Australian Defence Force.

Biosketch:

Michael Papasimeon graduated from The University of Melbourne in 1998 with a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Software Engineering and a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Theoretical Physics. Since 1998 he has been employed at the Aeronautical and Maritime Research Laboratory (AMRL) working in the area of air operational analysis. He has primarily been involved in software development, analysis, modelling and simulation activities in projects ranging from the AEW&C acquisition, air combat, maritime patrol and tactical development for stand-off strike missions.

Clinton Heinze is an aerospace engineer interested in cognitive modelling who is currently masquerading as a software engineer.  He has been employed by the Department of Defence for 10 years with the majority spent in modelling various aspects of air combat, and is currently undertaking a PhD part time at the Agents Lab at Melb Uni.