A test-bed for time-sensitive agents - some involved problems

The paper focuses on design issues of a test-bed for multi-agent systems that is to be used, among other conventional things, for specifying and formal analysis of time aspects, related to quality of service - requirements and constraints for correct functioning and activation periods, correct frequency and/or instants of interactions, correct age of the used data and events, etc. Those timing requirements and constraints are essential for proper operation of multi-agent system in a time-critical application, for analysis of overall design and implementation related properties, as well as for guaranteeing certain properties of emergent behavior during operation of a multi-agent system. This paper does not discuss time as used in adaptation, learning, and decision-making of an agent, although those processes can be studied by using similar time model.