Design support functions for developing multiagent system on repository-based multiagent framework

Agent systems have been designed and developed using recent agent technologies. However, design and debugging of these systems remain as difficult tasks of designers because agents have situational and nondeterministic characteristics and because no useful design support facilities have been provided for designers. To raise agent system-design efficiency, we propose an interactive design environment for agent system (IDEA) founded on an agent-repository-based multiagent framework. We specifically examine the design support functions for developing multiagent systems and emphasize the effectiveness of these functions.