Towards a Docker-based architecture for open multi-agent systems

Abstract

In open multi-agent systems (OMAS), heterogeneous agents in different environments or models can migrate from one system to another, taking their attributes and knowledge and increasing developing complexity compared to conventional multi-agent systems (MAS). Furthermore, the complexity of opening may be due to the uncertainties and dynamic behavior that the change of agents entails, needing to formulate techniques to analyze this complexity and understand the system’s global behavior. We used Docker to approach these problems and make the architecture flexible to handle distinct types of programming languages and frameworks of agents. This paper presents a Docker-based architecture to aid OMAS development, acting on agent migration between different models running in heterogeneous hardware and software scenarios. We present a simulation scenario with NetLogo’s Open Sugarscape 2 Constant Growback and JaCaMo’s Gold Miners to verify the proposal’s feasibility.