AHCI RESEARCH GROUP
Publications
Papers published in international journals,
proceedings of conferences, workshops and books.
OUR RESEARCH
Scientific Publications
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You can use the tag cloud to select only the papers dealing with specific research topics.
You can expand the Abstract, Links and BibTex record for each paper.
2015
Sabatucci, Luca; Cossentino, Massimo; Susi, Angelo
A Goal-Oriented Approach for Representing and Using Design Patterns Journal Article
In: Journal of Systems and Software, vol. 110, pp. 136–154, 2015.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Design Patterns, Goal-Oriented Approach, Software engineering
@article{sabatucciGoalorientedApproachRepresenting2015,
title = {A Goal-Oriented Approach for Representing and Using Design Patterns},
author = { Luca Sabatucci and Massimo Cossentino and Angelo Susi},
doi = {10.1016/j.jss.2015.07.040},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-01-01},
journal = {Journal of Systems and Software},
volume = {110},
pages = {136--154},
abstract = {Design patterns are known as proven solutions to recurring design problems. The role of pattern documentation format is to transfer experience thus making pattern employment a viable technique. This research line proposes a goal-oriented pattern documentation that highlights decision-relevant information. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it presents a semi-structural visual notation that visualizes context, forces, alternative solutions and consequences in a compact format. Second, it introduces a systematic reuse process, in which the use of goal-oriented patterns aids the practitioner in selecting and customizing design patterns. An empirical study has been conducted the results of which supports the hypothesis that the goal-oriented format provides benefits for the practitioner. The experiment revealed a trend in which solutions better address requirements when the subjects are equipped with the new pattern documentation.},
keywords = {Design Patterns, Goal-Oriented Approach, Software engineering},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Design patterns are known as proven solutions to recurring design problems. The role of pattern documentation format is to transfer experience thus making pattern employment a viable technique. This research line proposes a goal-oriented pattern documentation that highlights decision-relevant information. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it presents a semi-structural visual notation that visualizes context, forces, alternative solutions and consequences in a compact format. Second, it introduces a systematic reuse process, in which the use of goal-oriented patterns aids the practitioner in selecting and customizing design patterns. An empirical study has been conducted the results of which supports the hypothesis that the goal-oriented format provides benefits for the practitioner. The experiment revealed a trend in which solutions better address requirements when the subjects are equipped with the new pattern documentation.
2010
Chella, Antonio; Cossentino, Massimo; Gaglio, Salvatore; Sabatucci, Luca; Seidita, Valeria
Agent-Oriented Software Patterns for Rapid and Affordable Robot Programming Journal Article
In: Journal of systems and software, vol. 83, no. 4, pp. 557–573, 2010.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Agents, Design Patterns, Multi agent systems, Robotic Applications
@article{chellaAgentorientedSoftwarePatterns2010,
title = {Agent-Oriented Software Patterns for Rapid and Affordable Robot Programming},
author = { Antonio Chella and Massimo Cossentino and Salvatore Gaglio and Luca Sabatucci and Valeria Seidita},
doi = {10.1016/j.jss.2009.10.035},
year = {2010},
date = {2010-01-01},
journal = {Journal of systems and software},
volume = {83},
number = {4},
pages = {557--573},
abstract = {Robotic systems are often quite complex to develop; they are huge, heavily constrained from the non-functional point of view and they implement challenging algorithms. The lack of integrated methods with reuse approaches leads robotic developers to reinvent the wheel each time a new project starts. This paper proposes to reuse the experience done when building robotic applications, by catching it into design patterns. These represent a general mean for (i) reusing proved solutions increasing the final quality, (ii) communicating the knowledge about a domain and (iii) reducing the development time and effort. Despite of this generality, the proposed repository of patterns is specific for multi-agent robotic systems. These patterns are documented by a set of design diagrams and the corresponding implementing code is obtained through a series of automatic transformations. Some patterns extracted from an existing and freely available repository are presented. The paper also discusses an experimental set-up based on the construction of a complete robotic application obtained by composing some highly reusable patterns.},
keywords = {Agents, Design Patterns, Multi agent systems, Robotic Applications},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Robotic systems are often quite complex to develop; they are huge, heavily constrained from the non-functional point of view and they implement challenging algorithms. The lack of integrated methods with reuse approaches leads robotic developers to reinvent the wheel each time a new project starts. This paper proposes to reuse the experience done when building robotic applications, by catching it into design patterns. These represent a general mean for (i) reusing proved solutions increasing the final quality, (ii) communicating the knowledge about a domain and (iii) reducing the development time and effort. Despite of this generality, the proposed repository of patterns is specific for multi-agent robotic systems. These patterns are documented by a set of design diagrams and the corresponding implementing code is obtained through a series of automatic transformations. Some patterns extracted from an existing and freely available repository are presented. The paper also discusses an experimental set-up based on the construction of a complete robotic application obtained by composing some highly reusable patterns.
2009
Sabatucci, Luca; Cossentino, Massimo; Susi, Angelo
Introducing Motivations in Design Pattern Representation Proceedings Article
In: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Software Reuse: Formal Foundations of Reuse and Domain Engineering, pp. 210, Springer, 2009.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Design Patterns, Design Process, Goal-Oriented Approach
@inproceedings{sabatucciIntroducingMotivationsDesign2009,
title = {Introducing Motivations in Design Pattern Representation},
author = { Luca Sabatucci and Massimo Cossentino and Angelo Susi},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-04211-9_20},
year = {2009},
date = {2009-01-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Software Reuse: Formal Foundations of Reuse and Domain Engineering},
pages = {210},
publisher = {Springer},
abstract = {Design pattern formalization is aimed at encouraging the use of design patterns during the design phase. Many approaches focuses on providing solutions with a graphical notation and complementary text, typically composed by a static and a dynamic definitions. The weak point is the lack of flexibility when customizing the generic solution to the specific context of use. This paper proposes a criterion to motivate design pattern selection and reuse. Designer is supported with a technique for balancing pattern and context forces for selecting among alternative implementations. The provided representation summarizes and organizes relevant information in the classical informal pattern documentation.},
keywords = {Design Patterns, Design Process, Goal-Oriented Approach},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Design pattern formalization is aimed at encouraging the use of design patterns during the design phase. Many approaches focuses on providing solutions with a graphical notation and complementary text, typically composed by a static and a dynamic definitions. The weak point is the lack of flexibility when customizing the generic solution to the specific context of use. This paper proposes a criterion to motivate design pattern selection and reuse. Designer is supported with a technique for balancing pattern and context forces for selecting among alternative implementations. The provided representation summarizes and organizes relevant information in the classical informal pattern documentation.
2008
Sabatucci, Luca; Garcia, Alessandro F.; Cacho, Nélio; Cossentino, Massimo; Gaglio, Salvatore
Conquering Fine-Grained Blends of Design Patterns Proceedings Article
In: ICSR, pp. 294–305, 2008.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Design Patterns, Pattern Blending, Reusability
@inproceedings{sabatucciConqueringFineGrainedBlends2008,
title = {Conquering Fine-Grained Blends of Design Patterns},
author = { Luca Sabatucci and Alessandro F. Garcia and Nélio Cacho and Massimo Cossentino and Salvatore Gaglio},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-540-68073-4_32},
year = {2008},
date = {2008-01-01},
booktitle = {ICSR},
pages = {294--305},
abstract = {The reuse of design patterns in realistic software systems is often a result of blending multiple pattern elements together rather than instantiating them in an isolated manner. The explicit description of pattern compositions is the key for (i) documenting the structure and the behavior of blended patterns and, (ii) more importantly, supporting the reuse of composite patterns across different software projects. In this context, this paper proposes a fine-grained composition language for describing varying blends of design patterns based on their structural and behavioural semantics. The reusability and expressiveness of the proposed language are assessed through its application to 32 compositions of GoF patterns recurrently appearing in three different case studies: the OpenOrb middleware, the JHotDraw and JUnit frameworks.},
keywords = {Design Patterns, Pattern Blending, Reusability},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
The reuse of design patterns in realistic software systems is often a result of blending multiple pattern elements together rather than instantiating them in an isolated manner. The explicit description of pattern compositions is the key for (i) documenting the structure and the behavior of blended patterns and, (ii) more importantly, supporting the reuse of composite patterns across different software projects. In this context, this paper proposes a fine-grained composition language for describing varying blends of design patterns based on their structural and behavioural semantics. The reusability and expressiveness of the proposed language are assessed through its application to 32 compositions of GoF patterns recurrently appearing in three different case studies: the OpenOrb middleware, the JHotDraw and JUnit frameworks.
2007
Cossentino, Massimo; Sabatucci, Luca; Seidita, Valeria; Gaglio, Salvatore
An Expert System for the Design of Agents Proceedings Article
In: ICDIM, pp. 805–810, 2007.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Agents, Design Patterns, Software engineering
@inproceedings{cossentinoExpertSystemDesign2007,
title = {An Expert System for the Design of Agents},
author = { Massimo Cossentino and Luca Sabatucci and Valeria Seidita and Salvatore Gaglio},
doi = {10.1109/ICDIM.2007.4444323},
year = {2007},
date = {2007-01-01},
booktitle = {ICDIM},
pages = {805--810},
abstract = {The growing interest for the design and development of multi-agent systems has brought to the creation of a specific research area called Agent-Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE), specifically conceived for the development of complex systems. The development of such systems needs the support of appropriate tools that could help the designer in producing the design artefacts. We developed a tool called Metameth that may be used to define a new (agent-oriented) design process as well as to apply it. In this paper, we describe only a slice of this complex tool, specifically addressing the interaction with human actors (the designers). This subsystem is conceived as a collaborative multi-agent expert system, where each agent is capable of reasoning and adapting itself in order to support the designer in performing different kinds of design activities, regarding the use of various notations, and process life-cycles.},
keywords = {Agents, Design Patterns, Software engineering},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
The growing interest for the design and development of multi-agent systems has brought to the creation of a specific research area called Agent-Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE), specifically conceived for the development of complex systems. The development of such systems needs the support of appropriate tools that could help the designer in producing the design artefacts. We developed a tool called Metameth that may be used to define a new (agent-oriented) design process as well as to apply it. In this paper, we describe only a slice of this complex tool, specifically addressing the interaction with human actors (the designers). This subsystem is conceived as a collaborative multi-agent expert system, where each agent is capable of reasoning and adapting itself in order to support the designer in performing different kinds of design activities, regarding the use of various notations, and process life-cycles.
Sabatucci, Luca; Gaglio, Salvatore
Separation of Concerns and Role Implementation in the Passi Design Process Proceedings Article
In: Industrial Informatics, 2007 5th IEEE International Conference On, 2007.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Design Patterns, Design Process, Multi agent systems
@inproceedings{sabatucciSeparationConcernsRole2007,
title = {Separation of Concerns and Role Implementation in the Passi Design Process},
author = { Luca Sabatucci and Salvatore Gaglio},
doi = {10.1109/INDIN.2007.4384928},
year = {2007},
date = {2007-01-01},
booktitle = {Industrial Informatics, 2007 5th IEEE International Conference On},
volume = {2},
abstract = {The use of design patterns proved successful in lowering the development time and number of errors when producing software with the object-oriented paradigm. In previous works we engaged the production of a tool for the reuse of patterns for multi-agent systems. Now we are fronting a new problem: automatic code generation for agents, designed with a specific methodology, with the support of design patterns and using an aspect oriented approach. In this work we present our preliminary experiences in the identification, description, production and use of aspects for multi agent systems and a tool for code production.},
keywords = {Design Patterns, Design Process, Multi agent systems},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
The use of design patterns proved successful in lowering the development time and number of errors when producing software with the object-oriented paradigm. In previous works we engaged the production of a tool for the reuse of patterns for multi-agent systems. Now we are fronting a new problem: automatic code generation for agents, designed with a specific methodology, with the support of design patterns and using an aspect oriented approach. In this work we present our preliminary experiences in the identification, description, production and use of aspects for multi agent systems and a tool for code production.
2003
Cossentino, Massimo; Sabatucci, Luca; Chella, Antonio
Designing JADE Systems with the Support of CASE Tools and Patterns Journal Article
In: Special Issue on JADE of Telecom Italia Journal EXP of September, 2003.
Abstract | BibTeX | Tags: Design Patterns, Design Process, JADE, Multi agent systems, Supporting Tool
@article{cossentinoDesigningJADESystems2003,
title = {Designing JADE Systems with the Support of CASE Tools and Patterns},
author = { Massimo Cossentino and Luca Sabatucci and Antonio Chella},
year = {2003},
date = {2003-01-01},
journal = {Special Issue on JADE of Telecom Italia Journal EXP of September},
abstract = {In the last years, multi-agent systems (MAS) have proved more and more successful. The need of a quality software engineering approach to their design arises together with the request of new tools that could support a quick, affordable and cost- profitably development process. In this work we describe two different aspects of these topics: the support that a CASE tool specifically conceived for MASs can provide to the designer and the impact that patterns of agents can have in the systems production. Both of these issues have, in our approach, a common denominator that is the PASSI (Process for Agent Societies Specification and Implementation) design methodology since the CASE tool we will describe has been built to work with it and our patterns are totally integrate with this process. We will complete our discussion with some examples of the functionalities offered by these tools.},
keywords = {Design Patterns, Design Process, JADE, Multi agent systems, Supporting Tool},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
In the last years, multi-agent systems (MAS) have proved more and more successful. The need of a quality software engineering approach to their design arises together with the request of new tools that could support a quick, affordable and cost- profitably development process. In this work we describe two different aspects of these topics: the support that a CASE tool specifically conceived for MASs can provide to the designer and the impact that patterns of agents can have in the systems production. Both of these issues have, in our approach, a common denominator that is the PASSI (Process for Agent Societies Specification and Implementation) design methodology since the CASE tool we will describe has been built to work with it and our patterns are totally integrate with this process. We will complete our discussion with some examples of the functionalities offered by these tools.
Cossentino, Massimo; Burrafato, Piermarco; Lombardo, Saverio; Sabatucci, Luca
Introducing Pattern Reuse in the Design of Multi-Agent Systems Proceedings Article
In: Agent Technologies, Infrastructures, Tools, and Applications for E-Services: NODe 2002 Agent-Related Workshops Erfurt, Germany, October 7– 10, 2002 Revised Papers 4, pp. 107–120, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2003.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Design Patterns, Multi agent systems, Semantic layer
@inproceedings{cossentinoIntroducingPatternReuse2003,
title = {Introducing Pattern Reuse in the Design of Multi-Agent Systems},
author = { Massimo Cossentino and Piermarco Burrafato and Saverio Lombardo and Luca Sabatucci},
doi = {10.1007/3-540-36559-1_10},
year = {2003},
date = {2003-01-01},
booktitle = {Agent Technologies, Infrastructures, Tools, and Applications for E-Services: NODe 2002 Agent-Related Workshops Erfurt, Germany, October 7– 10, 2002 Revised Papers 4},
pages = {107--120},
publisher = {Springer Berlin Heidelberg},
abstract = {In the last years, multi-agent systems (MAS) have proved more and more successful. The need of a quality software engineering approach to their design arises together with the need of new methodological ways to address important issues such as ontology representation, security concerns and production costs. The introduction of an extensive pattern reuse practice can be determinant in cutting down the time and cost of developing these systems. Patterns can be extremely successful with MAS (even more than with object-oriented systems) because the great encapsulation of agents allows an easier identification and disposition of reusable parts. In this paper we discuss our approach to the pattern reuse that is a phase of a more comprehensive approach to agentoriented software design.},
keywords = {Design Patterns, Multi agent systems, Semantic layer},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
In the last years, multi-agent systems (MAS) have proved more and more successful. The need of a quality software engineering approach to their design arises together with the need of new methodological ways to address important issues such as ontology representation, security concerns and production costs. The introduction of an extensive pattern reuse practice can be determinant in cutting down the time and cost of developing these systems. Patterns can be extremely successful with MAS (even more than with object-oriented systems) because the great encapsulation of agents allows an easier identification and disposition of reusable parts. In this paper we discuss our approach to the pattern reuse that is a phase of a more comprehensive approach to agentoriented software design.