Simulating behavior of multi-agent systems with acyclic interactions of agents

In this paper, we present an approach to model and simulate models of multi-agent systems (MAS) using Petri nets. A MAS is modeled as a set of workflow nets. The agent-to-agent interactions are described by means of an interface. It is a logical formula over atomic interaction constraints specifying the order of inner agent actions. Our study considers positive and negative interaction rules. In this work, we study interfaces describing acyclic agent interactions. We propose an algorithm for simulating the MAS with respect to a given interface. The algorithm is implemented as a ProM 6 plug-in that allows one to generate a set of event logs. We suggest our approach to be used for evaluating process discovery techniques against the quality of obtained models since this research area is on the rise. The proposed approach can be used for process discovery algorithms concerning internal agent interactions of the MAS.