Scope of the project is to develop a tool-supported method for an integrated design of distributed agent systems, which is adapted to the special requirements of automation technology. The methods and tools, based on the results of the previous project AVE, will be further developed with the project partner Beckhoff Automation GmbH as well as its customers in terms of usability requirements for a development environment for agents in automation.

The tool-supported method will allow a consistent and comprehensive software design from the requirements analysis to the system development and implementation. The tool will be based on a modeling approach that will be developed and aggregates different modeling approaches for a design of distributed agent systems in automation and describes the various aspects within an integrated system model. It will be possible to automatically generate control code that is executable directly on IEC 61131runtime systems.

To further support the software development process, basic agent prototypes will be developed, which already provide the basic concepts of a software agent for automated production systems. The tool-based method will be evaluated together with the project partner Beckhoff Automation GmbH and its customers on usability aspects.