A coloured Petri net model for composite behaviors in multi-agent system

Traditional informal description methods have obvious shortcomings in describing complex composite behaviors in MAS, not only due to their hierarchical and concurrent properties, but also for their complicated dependencies. In this paper, we propose a formal description model, MAB_CPNs, for composite behaviors among agents based on coloured Petri nets. MAB_CPNs takes data dependent relationship and control dependent relationship into consideration and provide a more comprehensive perspective on composite behaviors. We also present the basic process structure and the formal description of behavior substitution to support the hierarchical structure description of behaviors. Finally, we give a case study.