Software architectures that contain many dynamically interacting components, each with their own thread of control, and engaging in complex coordination protocols, are difficult to correctly and efficiently engineer. Agent-oriented modelling techniques are important for supporting the design and development of such applications. This book provides a diverse and interesting overview of the work that is currently being undertaken by a growing number of researchers and research groups in the area of Agent-Oriented Software Engineering. The papers present leading edge research in this field, which is of critical importance in facilitating industry take-up of powerful agent technologies.
This volume constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Agent-Oriented Software Engineering, AOSE 2006, held in Hakodate, Japan, in May 2006 as part of AAMAS 2006. The 13 revised full papers were carefully selected from numerous submissions during two rounds of reviewing and improvement and have been complemented by invited papers from leading researchers in the field. The papers are organized in topical sections on modelling and design of agent systems, modelling open agent systems, formal reasoning about designs, as well as testing, debugging and evolvability.