AgentDSM-Eval: Developing a Framework on Evaluating Domain-specific Modeling Languages for Multi-agent Systems

The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) Academic Research Funding Program Directorate (ARDEB) Electrical, Electronics and Informatics Research Grant Committee (EEEAG) and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) funded bilateral research project (TUBITAK ARDEB Grant no: 115E591) (acceptance rate of the related bilateral project call: 6%)

Software development, required for constructing multi-agent systems (MAS) usually becomes challenging and time-consuming due to autonomy, distributedness and openness of these systems in addition to the complicated nature of internal agent behaviors and agent interactions. To facilitate MAS development, various domain-specific modeling languages (DSMLs) are proposed in the Agent-oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) research field. These DSMLs are supposed to meet software development requirements of both MAS DSML developers and MAS DSML users. Moreover, they should be evaluated to determine how they both speed up and facilitate MAS development. Although the descriptions of these languages are given in the related studies with the examples of their use, unfortunately, many of them are not evaluated either in terms of usability or quality of the generated artefacts. The evaluations in the remaining studies are made in an idiosyncratic manner without any comparison to meet developer expectations. In order to fill this gap in the AOSE research, an evaluation framework, called AgentDSM-Eval and its supporting tool, which can be used to evaluate MAS DSMLs systematically according to various quantitative and qualitative aspects of agent software development, were developed in this project. During the quantitative evaluation inside the AgentDSM-Eval tool, MAS domain coverage is determined by comparing a DSML’s metamodel with a reference MAS metamodel. In the second part of the quantitative evaluation, which is constructed on a multi-case study, the software development time and the artifact generation performance are taken into account. Finally, based on MAS developers’ feedback, the qualitative evaluation of the language is performed according to some quality metrics. Use of AgentDSM-Eval and its tool was exemplified with the evaluation of Prometheus/PDT, a well-known language in AOSE. In addition, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) based comparative evaluation method, supporting the multi-criteria decision making, was used for the evaluation of four widely used MAS DSMLs and favourite DSML for each comparison category and criteria was determined within this evaluation.

Start Date: March 1, 2017

End Date: March 1, 2020

Total Budget: 326.980 TL (~$91,000)

Project Team:

Turkish Side:

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Geylani KARDAS (Principal Investigator)

Asst. Prof. Dr. Moharram CHALLENGER (Researcher)

Baris Tekin TEZEL (Scholar) (Ph.D. Student)

Omer Faruk ALACA (Scholar) (M.Sc. Student)

Tansu Zafer ASICI (Scholar) (M.Sc. Student)

Ufuk FIRTINA (Scholar) (M.Sc. Student)

Portuguese Side:

Asst. Prof. Dr. Vasco AMARAL (Principal Investigator)

Asst. Prof. Dr. Miguel GOULAO (Researcher)

Dr. Ankica BARISIC (Researcher)

Tomas MIRANDA (Researcher)

Joao SILVA (Researcher)

Related Publications:

1. Asici, T. Z., Tezel, B. T. and Kardas, G. (2021) “<On the use of the analytic hierarchy process in the evaluation of domain-specific modeling languages for multi-agent systems", Journal of Computer Languages, vol. 62, 101020, pp. 1-15, DOI: 10.1016/j.cola.2020.101020.

2. Challenger, M., Tezel, B. T., Amaral, V., Goulao, M. and Kardas, G. (2021) “<Agent-based cyber-physical system development with SEA_ML++", Multi-Paradigm Modelling Approaches for Cyber-Physical Systems (1st Edition), Tekinerdogan et al. (Eds.), Elsevier, pp. 195-219, DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-819105-7.00013-1.

3. Asici T. Z. (2020) “On the Use of the Analytic Hierarchy Process in the Evaluation of Domain-specific Modeling Languages for Multi-agent Systems”, M.Sc. Thesis, Ege University, 84 pages (in Turkish).

4. Firtia U. (2020) “Extending DSML4BDI Language with JaCaMo Platform”, M.Sc. Thesis, Ege University, 99 pages (in Turkish).

5. Alaca, O. F. (2019) “A Tool Supporting the Systematic Evaluation of Domain-Specific Modeling Languages for Multi-Agent Systems”, M.Sc. Thesis, Ege University, 95 pages (in Turkish).

6. Miranda, T., Challenger, M., Tezel, B. T., Alaca, O. F., Barisic, A., Amaral, V., Goulao, M. and Kardas, G. (2019) "Improving the Usability of a MAS DSML, In proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Engineering Multi-Agent Systems (EMAS 2018), held in conjunction with the 17th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2018), July 14, 2018, Stockholm, Sweden, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, vol. 11375, pp. 55-75, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-25693-7_4 (best paper award).

7. Mascardi, V., Weyns, D., Ricci, A., Earle, C. B., Casals, A., Challenger, M., Chopra, A., Ciortea, A., Dennis, L. A., Diaz, A. F., El Fallah-Seghrouchni, A., Ferrando, A., Fredlund, L.-A., Giunchiglia, E., Guessoum, Z., Gunay, A., Hindriks, K., Iglesias, C. A., Logan, B., Kampik, T., Kardas, G., Koeman, V. J., Larsen, J. B., Mayer, S., Mendez, T., Nieves, J. C., Seidita, V., Tezel, B. T., Varga, L. Z. and Winikoff, M. (2019) "Engineering multi-agent systems: state of affairs and the road ahead", ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 18-28, DOI: 10.1145/3310013.3322175.

8. Silva, J., Barisic, A., Amaral, V., Goulao, M., Tezel, B. T., Alaca, O. F., Challenger, M. and Kardas, G. (2018) "Comparing the Usability of two Multi-Agents Systems DSLs: SEA_ML++ and DSML4MAS - Study Design", In proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Human Factors in Modeling (HuFaMo 2018), held in conjunction with ACM/IEEE 21st International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS 2018), October 15, 2018, Copenhagen, Denmark, CEUR Workshop Proceedings, vol. 2245, pp.770-777.

9. Tezel, B. T., Challenger, M. and Kardas, G. (2018) "DSML4BDI: A Modeling Tool for BDI Agent Development", In proceedings of the 12th Turkish National Software Engineering Symposium (UYMS 2018), September 10-12, 2018, Istanbul, Turkey, CEUR Workshop Proceedings, vol. 2201, pp. 1-8.

10. Kardas, G., Tezel, B. T. and Challenger, M. (2018) "Domain-specific modelling language for belief-desire-intention software agents", IET Software, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 356-364, DOI: 10.1049/iet-sen.2017.0094.

11. Challenger, M., Tezel, B. T., Alaca, O. F., Tekinerdogan, B. and Kardas, G. (2018) "Development of semantic web-enabled BDI multi-agent systems using SEA_ML: an electronic bartering case study", Applied Sciences, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 1-32, DOI: 10.3390/app8050688.

12. Kardas, G., Bircan, E. and Challenger, M. (2017) "Supporting the platform extensibility for the model-driven development of agent systems by the interoperability between domain-specific modeling languages of multi-agent systems", Computer Science and Information Systems, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 875-912, DOI: 10.2298/CSIS170113034K.

Model-driven Development of Device Tree Software for Different Embedded System Platforms

The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) Academic Research Funding Program Directorate (ARDEB) Electrical, Electronics and Informatics Research Grant Committee (EEEAG) funded research project (TUBITAK ARDEB Grant no: 117E553)

Device tree (DT) files, which include hardware information and configuration, are used during the compilation of operating systems for various embedded platforms. DTs provide description of physical devices and peripherals inside an embedded system hardware with node specifications. However, software developers mostly have difficulties in developing such applications due to text-based syntax of DT source files which has a different structure from the well-known general purpose programming languages. For each new embedded platform, specific DT files should be coded separately from scratch. Furthermore, the developer needs to be familiar with the hardware specific for each different microprocessor to prepare such files. That process can be very challenging for the developers who possess domain knowledge for these hardware but little or no experience on software development. Moreover, both development and configuration of DT software components regarding different microprocessor architectures can be very hard and time-consuming. In order to eliminate these deficiencies and difficulties of current DT software development processes, a model-driven software development (MDSD) methodology in which automatic generation and configuration of DT software for different embedded platforms is provided. Within this context, a domain-specific modeling language (DSML), called DSML4DT, with including all supporting visual modeling and automatic code generation tools for the application of the proposed MDSD methodology were developed in the project. Various noteworthy studies exist in the related research field for the model-driven development and/or the generation of codes for hardware drivers in the embedded systems. However, these studies do not take into account the development of DT-based software. The work herein provided the achievement of the initial artifacts in order to bridge the abovementioned gap encountered in the field. The evaluation of DSML4DT was performed over the development of DT software for four different embedded devices. The comparative evaluation results showed that a significant amount of the code required for DT software can be automatically achieved by using the DSML4DT. The time needed to develop DT software was reduced to half by applying the MDSD methodology and using DSML4DT. Finally, qualitative assessment, based on the developers’ feedback, exposed how DSML4DT facilitates DT software development.

Start Date: April 15, 2018

End Date: April 15, 2019

Total Budget: 18.189 TL (~$5,000)

Project Team:

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Geylani KARDAS (Principal Investigator)

Sadik Arslan (Scholar) (Ph.D. Student)

Related Publications:

1. Arslan, S. and Kardas, G. (2020) "DSML4DT: A domain-specific modeling language for device tree software", Computers in Industry, vol. 115, 103179, pp. 1-13, DOI: 10.1016/j.compind.2019.103179.

2. Arslan, S. and Kardas, G. (2019) "Reverse Engineering Support for the Model-driven Development of Device Tree Software", In proceedings of the 13th Turkish National Software Engineering Symposium (UYMS 2019), September 23-25, 2019, Izmir, Turkey, pp. 1-12 (in Turkish).

3. Arslan, S. and Kardas, G. (2018) "Modeling Device Tree Software", In proceedings of the 12th Turkish National Software Engineering Symposium (UYMS 2018), September 10-12, 2018, Istanbul, Turkey, CEUR Workshop Proceedings, vol. 2201, pp. 1-12 (in Turkish) (best paper award).

4. Arslan, S. (2018) "Model-driven Development of Device Tree Software", M.Sc. Thesis, Ege University, 139 pages (in Turkish).

A Study on the Model-driven Development of Internet of Things Software based on Contiki Operating System

Research project funded by the Scientific Research Projects Directorate of Ege University under grant 17-UBE-002.

Many developers prefer constructing software for Internet of Things (IoT) due to their low cost hardware requirements and variability of application domains. One of the popular operating systems underlying the IoT systems is Contiki operating system (ContikiOS). The unique lightweight thread structure of Contiki makes it more preferable in the implementation of new IoT systems instead of many other existing platforms. Although operating systems play the role of an abstraction layer for low level hardware, heterogeneity, distributed programming and network related concerns dominate the workload in software development. The separation of hardware-related and application-related concerns will improve the software engineering processes of IoT systems which may pave the way to deal with the system's structural complexity coming from the heterogeneity. One possible approach to cope with this complexity is to increase the abstraction level using system models, for IoT in a Model-driven Development (MDD) approach. MDD moves software development from code to models and may increase productivity and reduce development costs. Although MDD for IoT systems is being researched in several studies especially for the purpose of separation of concerns, most of them do not provide a complete and/or a systematic approach for their MDD solutions. Moreover, these studies do not consider the MDD of IoT on ContikiOS. Hence, in this project, design and implementation of a ContikiOS-based IoT system are realized according to MDD principles. The case study is the development of a smart library fire detection system.

Start Date: July 3, 2017

End Date: July 3, 2019

Total Budget: 26.696 TL (~$7,600)

Project Team:

Asst. Prof. Dr. Moharram CHALLENGER (Principal Investigator)

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Geylani KARDAS (Researcher)

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Orhan DAGDEVIREN (Researcher)

Dr. Raheleh ESLAMPANAH (Researcher)

Yasin YIGIT (Researcher) (Ph.D. Student)

Burak KARADUMAN (Researcher) (M.Sc. Student)

Omer Faruk ALACA (Researcher) (M.Sc. Student)

Sadik ARSLAN (Researcher) (M.Sc. Student)

Tansu ZAFER ASICI (Researcher) (M.Sc. Student)

Related Publications:

1. Arslan, S., Tezel, B. T., Challenger, M. and Kardas, G. (2018) "Design and Implementation of an Alarm System Software with Android Things Operating System", In proceedings of the 2nd International Scientific and Vocational Studies Congress - Engineering and Natural Sciences (BILMES EN-NAT 2018), July 5-8, 2018, Nevsehir, Turkey, pp. 1215-1220 (in Turkish).

Supporting the Interoperability between Domain-specific Agent Modeling Languages with Horizontal Model Transformations

Research project funded by the Scientific Research Projects Directorate of Ege University under grant 16-UBE-001.

The methodology applied in the current agent domain-specific modeling language (DSML) development approaches for the derivation of operational semantics unfortunately requires the definition and implementation of new model-to-model (M2M) and model-to-text (M2T) transformations from scratch in order to make the DSMLs functional for different agent execution platforms. For each new target agent execution platform, agent DSML designers should repeat all the time-consuming and mostly troublesome steps of preparing the vertical transformations between the related DSML and this new agent platform. Instead of applying this methodology, both the definition and the implementation of M2M transformations between the metamodels of MAS DSMLs may be more convenient and less laborious in the way of enriching the support of agent DSMLs for various agent execution platforms. Hence, this project aims at improving the mechanism of constructing language semantics over the interoperability of agent DSMLs and hence providing a more efficient way of extension for the executability of modeled agent systems on various underlying agent platforms. The project also covers investigating the applicability of the proposed DSML interoperability approach by constructing horizontal transformations between full-fledged agent DSMLs.

Start Date: June 1, 2016

End Date: June 1, 2018

Total Budget: 38.950 TL (~$13,200)

Project Team:

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Geylani KARDAS (Principal Investigator)

Asst. Prof. Dr. Moharram CHALLENGER (Researcher)

Emine BIRCAN (Researcher) (M.Sc. Student)

Baris Tekin TEZEL (Researcher) (Ph.D. Student)

Sercan DEMIRCI (Researcher) (Ph.D. Student)

Related Publications:

1. Kardas, G., Bircan, E. and Challenger, M. (2017) "Supporting the platform extensibility for the model-driven development of agent systems by the interoperability between domain-specific modeling languages of multi-agent systems", Computer Science and Information Systems, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 875-912, DOI: 10.2298/CSIS170113034K.

2. Bircan, E. (2017) “Horizontal Transformations between Platform Independent Metamodels of Software Agents”, M.Sc. Thesis, Ege University, 91 pages.

3. Bircan, E., Challenger, M. and Kardas, G. (2016) “Interoperability of MAS DSMLs via Horizontal Model Transformations”, In proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Model Driven Approaches in System Development (MDASD 2016), held in conjunction with 2016 Federated Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems (FedCSIS 2016), September 11-14, 2016, Gdansk, Poland, IEEE Conference Publications, pp. 1555-1564, DOI: 10.15439/2016F196.

Development of an Agent based Alternative Path Selection Method for Peer-to-Peer Video Streaming Applications

The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) Academic Research Funding Program Directorate (ARDEB) Electrical, Electronics and Informatics Research Grant Committee (EEEAG) funded research project (TUBITAK ARDEB Grant no: 111E022)

Received TUBITAK Project Performance Award in 2018

One of the most challenging parts of video streaming systems running on a peer to peer network is to cope with dynamic network conditions and unpredictable node behaviors. Therefore, in an overlay network, different paths are created from source to destination and when packet transmission problems occur in one video streaming path, destination node continues receiving packets on the other path. However, it needs to be determined whether designed path diversity or selected streaming path(s) is optimal in terms of video quality and path bandwidth. A system, based on the software agents with autonomous, reactive, proactive and social features, may be suitable for solving the selection problem of alternative paths in peer to peer video streaming systems. Hence, in this project, a new path selection system based on agents was developed in order to increase service quality of nodes in a peer to peer video streaming system. Both the construction of an overlay network and the development of the internal architecture of agents were realized. Connection between the nodes in the streaming network and the software agents were set up in order to provide agent-based selection of alternative paths. Logical path selection method, developed in this project, enables nodes to infer on the capacity and robustness of the other nodes based on the reinforcement learning. Another approach brought by the project considers the assessment of the physical paths between a node and its parents. According to the simulation results, it can be said that the proposed method performs much better than the existing methods considering all criteria on both quality of experience and network conditions.

Start Date: October 1, 2011

End Date: October 1, 2013

Total Budget: 177.078 TL (~$99,000)

Project Team:

Asst. Prof. Dr. Geylani KARDAS (Principal Investigator)
Asst. Prof. Dr. Muge SAYIT (Researcher)
Cihat CETINKAYA (Scholar) (Ph.D. Student)
Sercan DEMIRCI (Scholar) (Ph.D. Student)
Yagiz KAYMAK (Scholar) (Ph.D. Student)
Kemal Deniz TEKET (Scholar) (M.Sc. Student)
Suleyman YILDIRIM (Scholar) (M.Sc. Student)

Related Publications:

1. Yildirim, S., Sayit, M. and Kardas, G. (2015) “A belief-desire-intention agent architecture for partner selection in peer-to-peer live video streaming applications”, Expert Systems, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 327-343, DOI: 10.1111/exsy.12086.

2. Teket, K. D., Sayit, M. and Kardas, G. (2014) “Software agents for peer-to-peer video streaming”, IET Software, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 184-192, DOI: 10.1049/iet-sen.2013.0181.

3. Teket, K. D. (2013) “Agent-based Parent Selection in Peer-to-Peer Mesh-based Video Streaming Systems”, M.Sc. Thesis, Ege University, 60 pages (in Turkish).

4. Yildirim, S. (2012) “An Agent Architecture for Peer-to-Peer Live Video Streaming Applications”, M.Sc. Thesis, Ege University, 82 pages (in Turkish).

5. Sayit, M., Karayer, E., Teket, K. D., Kaymak, Y.,Cetinkaya, C., Demirci, S. and Kardas, G. (2013) "A Score-based Packet Retransmission Approach for Push-Pull P2P Streaming Systems", In proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Multimedia Applications and Processing (MMAP 2013), held in conjunction with 2013 Federated Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems (FedCSIS2013), September 8-11, 2013, Krakow, Poland, IEEE Conference Publications, pp. 627-633.

6. Teket, K. D., Kaymak, Y., Sayit, M. and Kardas, G. (2013) "Engineering a Multi-agent System for Peer-to-Peer Video Streaming", In proceedings of 2013 IEEE International Symposium on Innovations in Intelligent Systems and Applications (INISTA 2013), June 19-21, 2013, Albena, Bulgaria, IEEE Computer Society, pp. 1-7, DOI: 10.1109/INISTA.2013.6577655.

7. Sayit, M., Kaymak, Y., Teket, K. D., Cetinkaya, C.,Demirci, S. and Kardas, G. (2013) "Parent Selection via Reinforcement Learning in Mesh-based P2P Video Streaming", In proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations (ITNG 2013), April 15-17, 2013, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, IEEE Conference Publications, pp. 546-551, DOI: 10.1109/ITNG.2013.89.

A Domain Specific Modeling Language for Semantic Web enabled Multi-agent Systems

The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) Academic Research Funding Program Directorate (ARDEB) Electrical, Electronics and Informatics Research Grant Committee (EEEAG) and Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) funded bilateral research project (TUBITAK ARDEB Grant no: 109E125)

Received TUBITAK Project Performance Award in 2017

Software agents are considered to be autonomous entities which contain intelligence that serves for solving their selfish or common problems, and to achieve certain goals. These agents constitute Multi-agent Systems (MAS). However, the autonomous, responsive, and proactive natures of agents make the development of agent-based software systems more complex than other software systems. Furthermore, the design and implementation of a MAS may become even more complex and difficult to implement when considering new requirements and interactions for new agent environments like the Semantic Web. Both domain-specific modeling and the use of a domain-specific modeling language (DSML) may provide the required abstraction, and hence support a more fruitful methodology for the development of MASs. Within this context, a DSML, called SEA_ML, has been developed for the design and implementation of MAS with including all of its components and supporting software tools in this project. In addition to the classical viewpoints of a MAS, the proposed DSML includes new viewpoints which specifically support the development of software agents working in the Semantic Web environment. At first, a metamodel and an abstract syntax were defined for SEA_ML. Later, both graphical and textual concrete syntaxes were developed. Upon completion of the formal definition of the semantics, operational semantics was derived via model transformations in order to provide the real implementation of the designed MAS models. Codes for the agent software can be automatically achieved as the result of applying model to code transformations. All required tools for MAS modeling and developing software according to SEA_ML were also constructed in this project.

Start Date:March 1, 2010

End Date: March 1, 2013

Total Budget: 129.144 TL (~$86,000)

Project Team:

Turkish Side:

Asst. Prof. Dr. Geylani KARDAS (Principal Investigator)

Moharram CHALLENGER (Scholar) (Ph.D. Student)

Sebla DEMIRKOL (Scholar) (M.Sc. Student)

Sinem GETIR (Scholar) (M.Sc. Student)

Slovenian Side:

Prof. Dr. Marjan MERNIK (Principal Investigator)

Dr. Tomaz KOSAR (Researcher)

Dejan HRNCIC (Researcher)

Matej CREPINSEK (Researcher)

Related Publications:

1.Challenger, M., Kardas, G. and Tekinerdogan, B. (2016) “A systematic approach to evaluating domain-specific modeling language environments for multi-agent systems”, Software Quality Journal, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 755-795, DOI: 10.1007/s11219-015-9291-5.

2.Challenger, M., Mernik, M., Kardas, G. and Kosar, T. (2016) “Declarative specifications for the development of multi-agent systems”, Computer Standards & Interfaces, vol. 43, pp. 91-115, DOI: 10.1016/j.csi.2015.08.012.

3.Challenger, M. (2016) “A Domain-specific Modeling Language for Semantic Web enabled Multi-agent Systems”, Ph.D. Dissertation, EgeUniversity, 186 pages.

4.Getir, S., Challenger, M. and Kardas, G. (2014) “The formal semantics of a domain-specific modeling language for semantic web enabled multi-agent systems”, International Journal of Cooperative Information Systems, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 1-53, DOI: 10.1142/S0218843014500051.

5.Challenger, M., Demirkol, S., Getir, S., Mernik, M., Kardas, G. and Kosar, T. (2014) "On the use of a domain-specific modeling language in the development of multiagent systems", Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, vol. 28, pp. 111-141, DOI: 10.1016/j.engappai.2013.11.012.

6.Kardas, G. (2013) "Model-driven development of multi-agent systems: a survey and evaluation", The Knowledge Engineering Review, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 479-503, DOI: 10.1017/S0269888913000088.

7.Demirkol, S., Challenger, M., Getir, S., Kosar, T., Kardas, G. and Mernik, M. (2013) "A DSL for the development of software agents working within a semantic web environment", Computer Science and Information Systems, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 1525-1556, DOI: 10.2298/CSIS121105044D.

8.Getir, S. (2012) “Semantics of a Domain-specific Modeling Language for Semantic Web enabled Multi-agent Systems”, M.Sc. Thesis, Ege University, 139 pages (in Turkish).

9.Demirkol, S. (2012) “Syntax of a Domain-specific Modeling Language for Semantic Web enabled Multi-agent Systems”, M.Sc. Thesis, Ege University, 70 pages (in Turkish).

10.Demirkol, S., Challenger, M., Getir, S., Kosar, T., Kardas, G. and Mernik, M. (2012) "SEA_L: A Domain-specific Language for Semantic Web enabled Multi-agent Systems", In proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Model Driven Approaches in System Development (MDASD 2012), held in conjunction with 2012 Federated Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems (FedCSIS 2012), September 9-12, 2012, Wroclaw, Poland, IEEE Conference Publications, pp. 1373-1380.

11.Getir, S., Challenger, M., Demirkol, S. and Kardas, G. (2012) "The Semantics of the Interaction between Agents and Web Services on the Semantic Web", In proceedings of the 7th IEEE International Workshop on Engineering Semantic Agent Systems (ESAS 2012), held in conjunction with the 36th IEEE Signature Conference on Computers, Software, and Applications (COMPSAC 2012), 16-20 July 2012, Izmir, Turkey, IEEE Computer Society, pp. 619-624, DOI: 10.1109/COMPSACW.2012.112.

12.Getir, S., Demirkol, S., Challenger, M. and Kardas, G. (2011) "The GMF-based Syntax Tool of a DSML for the Semantic Web enabled Multi-Agent Systems", In proceedings of the Workshop on Programming Systems, Languages, and Applications based on Actors, Agents, and Decentralized Control (AGERE! 2011), held at the 2nd Systems, Programming, Languages and Applications: Software for Humanity Conference (SPLASH 2011), October 23-24, 2011, Portland, USA, ACM Press, pp. 235-238, DOI: 10.1145/2095050.2095087.

13.Getir, S., Demirkol, S., Challenger, M. and Kardas, G. (2011) "Graphical Concrete Syntax of a Domain Specific Modeling Language for Semantic Web enabled Agents", In proceedings of the 5th Turkish National Software Engineering Symposium (UYMS 2011), September 26-28, 2011, Ankara, Turkey, pp. 93-100 (in Turkish).

14.Challenger, M., Getir, S., Demirkol, S. and Kardas, G. (2011) "A Domain Specific Metamodel for Semantic Web enabled Multi-agent Systems", In proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Domain Specific Engineering (DsE@CAiSE 2011), held in conjunction with the 23rd International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE 2011), June 20-24, 2011, London, UK, Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol. 83, pp. 177-186, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-22056-2_19.

15.Demirkol, S., Getir, S., Challenger, M. and Kardas, G. (2011) "Development of an Agent based E-barter System", In proceedings of 2011 International Symposium on Innovations in Intelligent Systems and Applications (INISTA 2011), June 15-18, 2011, Istanbul, Turkey, IEEE Computer Society, pp. 193-198, DOI: 10.1109/INISTA.2011.5946060.

16.Kardas, G., Demirezen, Z. and Challenger, M. (2010) "Towards a DSML for Semantic Web enabled Multi-agent Systems", In proceedings of the International Workshop on Formalization of Modeling Languages (FML 2010), held in conjunction with the 24th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2010), June 21-25, 2010, Maribor, Slovenia, ACM Press, pp. 1-5, DOI: 10.1145/1943397.1943402.

Assessment and Performance Measurement of Semantic Service Discovery Methods on Mobile Platforms

Research project funded by the Scientific Research Projects Directorate of Ege University under grant 2009/UBE/003.

Discovery of the most appropriate services meeting with the requirements of mobile device users is one of the crucial aims of service-oriented software systems. Although geographical closeness to the mobile user represents one of the important criteria on the determination of the services, such closeness is no more sufficient due to the diversity seen on both the requirements of the users and types of the services. Especially, improper assessment of service capability and quality causes those services to be inappropriate for the user needs despite of their geographical closeness. Research on the use of the Semantic Web and related technologies to cope with this problem recently became popular. If both the capabilities of the services and the requirements of the users can be modeled and defined according to some ontologies, matchmaking of the service capabilities and user requirements becomes more efficient and hence the suitable services will be discovered easily. Vast major of the work in the related research field covers noteworthy contributions for the semantic discovery in question. However, the performance of the proposed approaches especially on the real mobile platforms is an open issue. In order to fill this gap, performance measurement of the semantic discovery of the services, registered in various ontologies with different sizes, has been carried out in this project. Services of some eating places (e.g. cafes and restaurants), distributed over an area, are considered as the semantic services in the study. Discovery of these places according to both their geographical and semantic closeness to the mobile users has been tested inside a real implemented system.

Start Date: November 1, 2009

End Date: November 1, 2012

Total Budget: 14.000 TL (~$9,300)

Project Team:

Asst. Prof. Dr. Geylani KARDAS (Principal Investigator)

Dr. Ilker KOCABAS (Researcher)

Hamit UNUGUR (Researcher) (M.Sc. Student)

Egemen EVIN (Researcher) (M.Sc. Student)

Related Publication:

Unugur, H. (2014) “Assessment of the Semantic Service Discovery Methods on Mobile Platforms”, M.Sc. Graduation Project Report, Ege University, Turkey, 52 pages (in Turkish).