=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2404/paper06
|storemode=property
|title=A Metamodel of a Multi-Paradigm Approach to Smart Cyber-Physical Systems Development
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2404/paper06.pdf
|volume=Vol-2404
|authors=Massimo Cossentino,Salvatore Lopes,Giovanni Renda,Luca Sabatucci,Flavia Zaffora
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/woa/CossentinoLRSZ19
}}
==A Metamodel of a Multi-Paradigm Approach to Smart Cyber-Physical Systems Development==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2404/paper06.pdf
Workshop "From Objects to Agents" (WOA 2019)
A Metamodel of a Multi-Paradigm Approach to
Smart Cyber-Physical Systems Development
Massimo Cossentino, Salvatore Lopes, Giovanni Renda, Luca Sabatucci, Flavia Zaffora
National Research Council
ICAR Institute, Palermo, Italy
{name.surname}@icar.cnr.it
Abstract—This paper illustrates an approach to the develop- digital systems [1], [2]. In CPS, components are usually
ment of a shipboard power system reconfiguration as a Smart distributed over a network. The term ‘cyber-physical’ was born
cyber-physical system (CPS). It is developed by representing it around 2006 at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the
through a meta-model, providing a multi-paradigm approach
that exploits the best features of three available frameworks, United States. This Foundation supports the collaboration of
Jade, Jason and Akka. The resulting developing framework cyber and physical components with the objective to extend the
allows the creation of a new composite entity (labelled H-Entity) capabilities of the physical layer. The join between the cyber
that exploits the advantages of Jade, Jason and Akka. and the physical will create new applications [3]–[6]: industry
Index Terms—CPS, smart, meta-model, multi-paradigm 4.0, biomedical/healthcare systems, next-gen transportation
systems, smart grid and renewable energy.
I. I NTRODUCTION Since their very start in early 2000, the research and appli-
The CPS application fields are nowadays several in all cations on this field increasingly evolved influencing several
the domains of human activities. Here the paradigm of CPS human activities [1]. Whereas a CPS is by nature adaptive
is presented with the added quality of smartness, trying to and predictive [7], adding the word smart means to define
find a flexible solution integrating heterogeneous technologies it with a specific quality of intelligence that the CPS does
to easily communicate, although formerly not thought to not necessarily require. Nevertheless, the smartness of a CPS
cooperate at all. The specific case study is the Shipboard Power lies in the property of the reasoning, and in the ability
System (SPS) reconfiguration, where the use of a smart CPS is of communication and knowledge-sharing among dissimilar
particularly compelling. The proposed solution to the problem components to take run-time decisions.
adopts a multi-paradigm approach, where the selected require- Current approaches to the development of smart CPSs en-
ments of adaptivity, proactivity, reactivity and smartness led to compass several alternative frameworks. Some selected are
the consideration of different paradigm frameworks, especially illustrated in the following.
referring to Agents and Actors entities. Among the available
frameworks, three of the most representative, Jason, Jade and B. Ptolemy II
Akka, have been examined. Thus, this approach allowed to use
Ptolemy II was born around 1996, successor to Ptolemy
each paradigm’s strength points for the most suitable task. The
Classic. It is a framework of Java-based components with
resulting developing framework is proposed in the form of a
a graphical user interface called Vergil. As described from
meta-model, representing the composition of the so-called H-
the developer [8], “the Ptolemy project studies the modelling,
Entity, the core element of the meta-model. It constitutes the
simulation and design of simultaneous embedded systems in
central reasoning of the proposal, gathering in itself different
real time.” Its central core consists in the possibility to assem-
entities finally able to exchange information. In the end, an
ble concurrent components, using well-defined computational
appendix with the definition of all meta-model elements is
models governing the components interactions. A further
provided.
development of the issue is to mix different computational
II. T HEORETICAL BACKGROUND models for the purpose.
Before entering the proposal of a smart CPS development,
C. Jade
it is better to briefly introduce what a CPS is, which are the
principal domain applications, and what kind of frameworks JADE (Java Agent DEvelopment framework), is an Agent-
can be taken into account. Thus, a short presentation of CPS, oriented middleware [9]. It is compliant to FIPA standards,
Ptolemy, Jade, Jason and Akka is following. implementing the Agent Management specification and the
FIPA Agent Communication stack [10]. It allows to realize a
A. Cyber-Physical System (CPS) distributed system, whose agents are autonomous and proac-
A Cyber-Physical System (CPS) is a new generation of tive [11]. It supports ontologies and content languages and it
systems integrating the physical processes with those of the holds an interaction protocols library [10].
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Workshop "From Objects to Agents" (WOA 2019)
D. Jason to be validated by the SPSPlanValidator, and the resources
Jason is a framework implementing the AgentSpeak lan- must be negotiated with other requirements through the SPS
guage [12]. It is agent-oriented, and it uses a Java-based Representative. Now the Captain can decide if approving or
platform. As coming from AgentSpeak, it is inspired by the not the solution and, if yes, the SPSManager can apply it
philosophical belief-desire-intention (BDI) model, that gives through the enactor, set by the crew and directly acting on the
to it a human-like “reasoning”: thus, Agents acquire a kind of switches that physically turn off the selected circuits.
intentionality. They are autonomous, proactive, reactive and By showing this exemplified situation, the smartness is es-
they show a social ability, so that they are able to coordinate pecially required for the central role that the Manager plays
and cooperate. In the framework JaCaMo, the organization and for the need to set run-time plans after deciding the load
of autonomous BDI agents, programmed in Jason, is defined priorities.
by the Moise framework, and the Agents work in a shared B. The requirements
artifact-based environment, programmed in Cartago [13].
The general requirements a CPS should fulfill lie in a
E. Akka wide domain, that in [2] is richly exposed. All of these are
Akka is a Java-based framework, containing libraries imple- strictly interrelated each other and the underlying need is the
mented by the Scala programming language [14], and whose security the system should assure in dealing with trustiness
main entity is an Actor. It presents a robust hierarchical and reliability of its physical and digital components and with
structure, made by actors linked each other by a parent-sons the run-time interaction with the real world. Looking closer to
strategy. Akka Actors interact by exchanging asynchronous the present case, the CPS here developed for a SPS should:
messages. be smart, i.e. the system should show a reasoning aptitude
(agent-oriented paradigm); be adaptive, that means the system
III. T HE APPROACH can efficiently adapt to environmental changes; be predictive,
Smart CPS may be applied in many different contexts: i.e. it can foresee changes in its behavior for possible changes
this section will discuss our specific domain of interest, the in the context; be distributed: the system is heterogeneous and
reconfiguration of shipboard power systems, and an analysis of its parts are located in different places so it is able to maintain
the approach adopted for developing the proposed framework. the connection; face realtime event, so the system is able to
promptly react to changes; provide feedback loop, thus it can
A. The context: smart CPS for Shipboard Power Systems react to unexpected changes by monitoring itself and adjusting
(SPS) its behavior.
The here-described application context is specifically re-
ferred to the use of a CPS for the reconfiguration of Shipboard C. The proposed approach: a multi-paradigm strategy
Power Systems (SPS). An SPS is responsible for vessels power A cyber-physical system is heterogeneous by definition,
supply, and it governs all the aspects of the electrical system even just for it couples digital elements with physical ones.
onboard. About the state of the art of the reconfiguration The purpose here exposed is to develop a smart cyber-physical
methods, a study has been led [15], and it generated a system respecting some requirements especially involving
reflection about the possible use of a smart CPS encountering the information exchange among heterogeneous systems, an
the requirements this problem would ask for. The case of SPS ability we can refer to as interoperability [2]. Therefore,
is particularly relevant because it is an enclosed environment interoperability could determine a sort of translation among
that, in scale, could represent any other application field elements, languages, frameworks originally independent, act-
where the need to make different technologies cooperate is ing on the communication-side of a CPS. A smart CPS uses
compelling and fruitful to improve the efficiency of the entire specific frameworks involving some reasoning, and the need
system itself. It allows the experimentation on the interaction for communication has to include a social aspect along with
between the cyber-physical system and human control, for an aptitude to adaptation. These elements explicitly belong to
its adaptation after one or several changes occurred. Notably, agent-oriented languages, while the necessity of scaling and
the implementation and improvement of reconfiguration pro- feedback loop requires to adopt an actor-based language. Thus,
cedures acting on both the physical (the electrical one) and the at first a selection and a comparison of three agent and actor-
cybernetic system (the software side of the problem) imply the based frameworks was done, trying to understand which of
challenge to face the occurring faults with a real-time response. them could be more suitable to the purpose. Dealing with the
Here a general SPS reconfiguration scenario is depicted. The above-mentioned SPS scenario, with the constraint of using
Captain sets the ship’s Mission through an Interface, that different available technologies (the CPS challenge), meant
communicates with the SPSManager and can lay out a change having a multi-paradigm approach.
of the Mission. So the SPSManager sets the load priorities The term multi-paradigm refers to a domain dealing with com-
(distinguishing vital, semi-vital and non-vital loads in the plex heterogeneity of models [16]. The Multi-Paradigm Mod-
specific case) and finds a reconfiguration plan responding eling, MPM, comes to solve the contemporary use of different
to the electrical failure perceived and communicated by the paradigms characterized for not sharing the same language.
sensors through the SensorActor. The solution found has The more heterogeneous is the relationship the harder is the
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Workshop "From Objects to Agents" (WOA 2019)
issue to address. The problem here exposed couples different after we will have a look at the represented meta-model (Fig.
paradigms with different underlying languages. Jade, Jason 1). There, a top-down and a bottom-up perspective to deal
and Akka have been taken into account [11], highlighting with it are provided. This means that one could read the meta-
their common points and their peculiarities. Although they are model in terms of composition of elements (top-down) or by
all Java-based, their differences are several, and they descend analyzing the single parts which it is made of (bottom-up).
from the concepts behind their main entity, the Agent for
Jade and Jason, the Actor for Akka. Moreover, Jade’s Agents A. The H-Entity
respect FIPA standards, whereas Jason’s are based on a BDI The so-defined H-Entity, where ‘H’ stands for heteroge-
model. In the following lines, their distinguishing traits will neous, holds the entire philosophy here proposed. It can be
be summarized. considered as a polyhedral organism composed of frameworks
• Jason’s reasoning that cooperate by exploiting their best qualities and winning
Basing on a BDI (belief-desire-intention) model, Jason’s skills. The H-Entity allows them to share their knowledge
Agent shows a decision-making ability that can be called among each other if they use different languages, and between
reasoning [12]. Human-like, it expresses by a sequence them and the external world, making into communication other
of tasks making a plan that is acted to pursue a goal, possible H-Entities. It is conceived as a flexible and versatile
with the qualities of autonomy, reactivity, proactivity and structure, defined by Roles played by the most suitable specific
social ability. With special regards to the last one, the Entity (composing the H-Entity).
communication among Agents is an actual action [12],
B. Top-down meta-model perspective
that has a Propositional Content and a Performative (e.
g. a request). Let’s now observe the meta-model. The principle of all lies
• Jade’s communication protocols in the Cyber-Physical World, which is made up of a CPS
In Jade the interaction between distributed Agents is Organization and of an Environment; they are the organiza-
particularly stressed. As fully adhering to FIPA, the tional side, corresponding to the Moise framework, and the
Agent is proactive, so it can react to a state change environmental side, belonging to Cartago. The so-called H-
and decide to pursue a goal [11]. Developing with Jade Entities also belong to the CPS world: they play the CPS roles,
means using the object-oriented paradigm with specific which are Moise roles and make a CPS organization. They
aptitude to finite state-machine and interoperability due constitute the link among the left and right areas. On their turn,
to protocols-oriented communications, to ontologies and the H-Entities are entities (Agents and/or Actors) playing both
to full support for FIPA specifications. H-Roles, defined as Manager, Worker, Diplomat and Interface,
• Akka’s hierarchy and Entity Roles, which are Moise roles. This is the Moise
The peculiar structure of Akka lies in the father-sons Organization, that allows the Entity to pursue a goal by playing
hierarchy of the entities. [14]. Developing a reactive a role that determines the behavior of a Group of Entities. The
system on Akka means reasoning in terms of parallel, same kind of organization is adopted inside a single H-Entity
asynchronously communicating processing (the actors), among its own Entities constituting it, or among different H-
and enfatizing aspects such as efficiency, distribution, Entities, that happen to interact in the Cyber-Physical World.
scalability and failures control. Unlike Jason and Jade, Then, the H-Roles define the distribution of responsibilities
Akka features allow a safe approach for implementing in a single H-Entity; the CPS Roles describe the macro-
highly scalable and performant functions; moreover Akka functionalities in the whole external system of CPS, among
Stream provides a capability of internal coordination to different H-Entities. The Roles define the structural definition
implement pre-defined workflows. of the organization and allow the Entities to pursue a goal by
For the above-mentioned aim, it resulted that none of them following a behavioral constraint; the Goal is collective and
can be substituted without losing something, so instead of to be achieved by accomplishing Missions, that are the link
settle with just one, the new objective was to choose all of between roles and Social Scheme, i.e. between the structural
them, basically using each strength points, i.e.: Jason’s reason- and the functional part of the organization. On the left side, the
ing, Akka’s hierarchy and scalability, Jade’s communication CPS world has an Environment, both physical and cybernetic.
protocols. Here the artifacts compose the workspace: the artifacts are
made by a Manual, that holds the information about their state,
IV. T HE PROPOSED FRAMEWORK and by some Operations. The latter ones update Observable
Since it is a compact representation, the use of a meta- Properties, that are the states of the artifacts, and generate
model is useful to have an overall view of all the components Observable Events (e. g., in the lower meta-model level, the
of the proposal: the more the parts are, the more useful messages).
the construction of the meta-model is. Building it up means
to clear up the hierarchies and especially the relationships C. Bottom-up meta-model perspective
keeping otherwise separated and, most of all, to finally see Let’s put one aside the other the three frameworks we
possible links and how to develop them [17]. analyzed. Each of them has its own entity: Jade and Jason
In the following section the H-Entity will be introduced. Right Agents and Akka Actor.
37
Workshop "From Objects to Agents" (WOA 2019)
Fig. 1. The H-Entity Meta-Model
a) Jade side: Jade’s Agent has an AgentState, performs behaviour.
a behavior through a Scheduler and it sends and receives an
D. The linking entities
ACLMessage, which is FIPA compliant: thus, it contains a
Content, a Content Language, an Ontology, a Protocol and a Something is immediately evident: at the bottom of the
Performative, and it is expressed by an Agent-Communication figure, the message level shows a gradual implementation from
Language (ACL). the Actor to Jade Agent framework: the Message, containing
just a Content in Akka, acquires a Performative in Jason, and
b) Jason side: The Jason Agent lives following a BDI then also a Protocol, a Language and an Ontology in Jade
model. In pursuing some Goals, it reacts to the Events oc- (that, it is known, has its strength point in the communication
curring in the context which trigger some Plans. The Plans side). Here it comes the key of the interaction among the
have to satisfy these goals. In the meanwhile, Jason Agent three frameworks, originally not conceived to communicate
communicates through messages, defined as Jason Messages, at all. The other elements placed outside the known meta-
made by a content (Proposition) and a Performative. models are those related to the concepts of entities: the upper
c) Akka side: Finally, in Akka the actor shows a parental entities, called H-Entities, are all of those elements who can
hierarchy [14] that enacts a Supervision Strategy. The actor interact among each other in the CPS world through an
performs a Behavior which influences a State. The Behaviour upper Moise Organization, that replicates in the lower meta-
triggers the so-called Akka Message that in turns generates a model level among the Roles of a single entity. Thus, the
38
Workshop "From Objects to Agents" (WOA 2019)
Goal can be a Social Goal, when pursued at the upper level, 15 ACLMessage msg = new ACLMessage(ACLMessage.INFORM);
16 msg.addReceiver(new AID("manager",AID.ISLOCALNAME))
while at the bottom it is the single Goal pursued by Agents. ;
There are still two elements to be analyzed, the so-defined 17 msg.setLanguage("h-language");
18 msg.setContent(content);
Jade-Jason Message Wrapper and the Jade-Akka Message 19 myAgent.send(msg);
Wrapper, highlighted in green in the picture. These constitute 20 }
21 }
the practical key for the realization of the inter-communication 22 }
among the three frameworks. What they do is establishing
a translation using the Jade Communication Protocol as a Source code 2. Akka to Jason wrapper def
channel: whenever an agent or an actor sends a message,
Jade intercepts it to re-send it to its recipient, using a wrapper The use of a Jade Agent as a bridge is very useful because,
with Jason, by sharing the content and the performative, and through the extension of the CyclicBehaviour class, a type
a wrapper with Akka, sharing only the content. of Behaviour that execute the action() method cyclically and
never ends, the agent waits for messages from Jason agent,
V. T HE SOLUTION then the Jade Agent sends them to the root actor. With the
The meta-model allowed to understand how and at what source code 1, in the setup() method (line 5), a root actor
level to realize the merging among all frameworks. The is instantiated: this actor has the task of initializing all the
following subsections will provide details about the wrappers possible sub-actors useful to the system, and it allows the sub-
developed to allow their interactions and the solution to the actors to connect with the Jason Agent. When the Manager
scenario introduced before. (Jason Agent) would like to send a message to an actor, the
JadeAkkaActorSystem intercepts the message (line 12) and
A. Examples of code: the Wrappers sends it to the root actor (line 15), which has the task to send
As introduced in the previous section, the entities are linked the message to the specified sub-actor. When an actor would
together at the message level. This layer is implemented send a message to a Jason Agent, uses the class Akka2Jade
with the wrappers: in source code 1 and source code 2, (source code 2). These bridges also exploit a native class
the wrappers connect the Jason agent (Manager), with the named JadeAgArch that allows instantiating a Jason Agent into
Akka Actor (root). The communications from the Jason Agent a Jade Agent, sending messages from Jason to Akka Actor
to the Akka Actors are managed through a bridge. This is through Jade Agent and vice versa. With the source code 2,
implemented with a Jade agent named JadeAkkaActorSystem the actor uses the sendJason(msg) method (line 3-21) to send
(source code 1). a message to the Manager (Jason Agent).
1 public class JadeAkkaActorSystem extends Agent { B. The SPS scenario
2 ...
3 protected void setup() {
4 Akka2Jade bridge =new Akka2Jade(this);
In Fig. 2 it is explained the CPS solution for the SPS
5 root = system.actorOf(Root.props(bridge), "root- scenario, with the adoption of the proposed meta-model.
worker");
6 addBehaviour(new ForwardIncomingMessages());
The Captain sets the Mission by using the Interface which
7 } is made by a Cartago Artifact; so the Mission is changed and
8
9 private class ForwardIncomingMessages extends
this is communicated to the SPSManager, whose role is played
CyclicBehaviour { by a Jason Agent. It sets the load priorities with an exchange
10 @Override
11 public void action() {
with the MissionManager, which after detecting the electric
12 ACLMessage msg = myAgent.receive(); failure (by sensors communicating with Akka Actors, through
13 if (msg != null) {
14 String content = msg.getContent();
the CircuitMonitor, finds a possible Reconfiguration with the
15 root.tell(content, null); SPS Plan Generator, which is an Actor. This is sent to the
16 }
17 }
Manager which needs to validate the Solution by sending it
18 } to a Validator, an Akka Actor, exchanging information with a
19 }
MatLab platform. So the available resources are negotiated
Source code 1. Jason to Akka wrapper def with a “talk” between the Jason Agent Manager and the
SPSRepresentative which is a Jade Agent. The solution is
1 public class Akka2Jade {
finally approved by the Captain who allows the Manager to
2 ... apply it by enabling the Crew to interact with the Enactor,
3 public void sendJason(String msg) {
4 if (myAgent != null)
a Cartago Artifact, passing through a Reconfigurator Enactor,
5 myAgent.addBehaviour( new SendToJason(msg)); an Akka Actor. It physically switches off the non-vital loads
6 }
7
to efficiently deal with the fault. Thanks to the proposed
8 private class SendToJason extends OneShotBehaviour { approach, the solution takes advantage of the most relevant
9 ...
10 public SendToJason (String content) {
features of the three composing frameworks: it shows the
11 this.content = content; capability to adhere to standards, from Jade; it implements
12 }
13 @Override
a strategy in high levels rules, through Jason, and it is very
14 public void action() { efficient, due to the Akka contribution.
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Workshop "From Objects to Agents" (WOA 2019)
<>
CircuitMonitor
[Akka]
8. Captain
<> <> Approve <>
SensorMonitor SensorArrayMonitor 2. Electric failure CaptainInterface
Solution 7.
[Akka] [Akka] [Cartago]
Current Propose
Sensors Solution
1. Set mission
<>
SensorMonitor
[Akka] <>
SPSManager
Current [Jason]
Sensors 6. Negotiate Resources
9. Apply Solution
<>
<> 3. Find
SPSRepresentative
SwitchArtifact Reconfiguration <> Reconfiguration [JADE]
[Cartago] Enactor SPSPlanGenerator
[Akka] [Akka]
Switchers
4. Validate Solution
SwitchArtifact
[Cartago] <>
<>
5. Feasible Solution Emergency
Switchers SPSPlanValidator
Representative
[Akka]
[JADE]
MatLab
<> Simulink
CrewInterface
[Cartago]
Crew
Fig. 2. The solution for a SPS reconfiguration
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ternational Conference on Complex, Intelligent, and Software Intensive defined to the purpose of interaction among messages by the
Systems. IEEE, 2012, pp. 12–19. specification of sequences.
VII. A PPENDIX : DEFINITION OF META - MODEL ELEMENTS Content: it defines the information carried by a message. It
CARTAGO [18] [19] follows FIPA indications about its expression generally using
Artifact: it is the basic element of the environment and it SL (semantic language).
provides organizational operations as they are used by Agents. Content language: it is expressed in SL and it is made up of
expressions or propositions.
Environment: it consists in the field of work for the agents’
Ontology: it is a knowledge base the messages refer to.
activities.
Performative: it is a type of communication expressed by a
Manual: it contains the information about the functional
message, it is the communicative act.
description and the observable states of the artifact.
Workspace: it is defined as an open set of artifacts and agents.
JASON [12] [21]
The agent must exist in a workspace.
Jason Agent: autonomous, reactive, proactive and social entity
Operation: It determines the update of the artifact state or it
based on a BDI (belief, desire, intention) model.
generates observable events.
Plan: a set of actions to be performed to pursue and satisfy a
Observable Property: it determines the functional behavior of
goal.
the artifact.
Trigger Event: it is the circumstance that activates a plan
Observable Event: it is an event generated by an operation
rather than another.
and sensed and registered by the agent sensors.
Action: each task which a plan is made of. It is performed by
the agent and can change the environment so becoming an
MOISE [13] [19]
Event.
Group: responsible for one or more Social Schemes that the
Event: a change in agent’s initial knowledge or goal.
Agents adhere to.
Context: it is a set of conditions determining the execution of
Social Scheme: it contains several missions.
a Plan.
Mission: contained in the Schemes, it is defined by a set of
Belief : a predicate representing the starting knowledge of the
goals to achieve.
environment the agent has.
Role: it is a behavioral constraint for an Agent to play in a
Rule: a logic expression made by predicates.
Group.
Goal: the final state that the agent wants to achieve by
Norm: the collecting element between the Role and the
performing a plan.
Mission so the Group to Role.
Jason Message: it has a performative and a content. It allows
Social Goal: the Goal the organization has to achieve.
the Agents to communicate each other and it updates the
believes.
H-ENTITY
Jason Performative: it is of the kind of request, information,
H-Entity: it is the core element of the meta-model. It gathers
etc
all the possible heterogeneous entities.
Propositional Content: it is expressed by arguments and it
Entity: one of the infinite possible members of the H-Entities.
could be true or false.
It can be an Agent or an Actor.
H-Role: H-Roles are internal roles played by the Entities.
AKKA [14] [11]
CPS Role: CPS Roles are played among different H-Entities
Akka Actor: a reactive entity encapsulating a state and a
interacting in the CPS World.
behavior.
Entity Role: the external roles played by Entities following
State: it is encapsulated by the Actor.
the Moise Organization.
Behaviour: an encoding of reactions.
JADE [10] [20] Supervision Strategy: the feature based on the hierarchical
Jade Agent: it shows quality of autonomy and proactivity. structure of Akka made of fathers and son. Each father is
Behaviour: It implements the tasks that the Agents can responsible for its sons.
pursue. Akka Message: the interaction key among Actors. It stimulates
ACLMessage: it is based on an asynchronous communication a reactive action of the Actor. Received messages are stored
paradigm. It makes the interaction among Agents. in a mailbox. It has just a content.
Protocol: as part of the structure of the ACLMessage, it is
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