Incremental Development of Multi-agent Systems in Object-Z

The complexity of multi-agent systems (MAS) demands a formal and incremental approach to their development. Such an approach needs to take into account issues specific to the development of MAS. In particular, methods are required for incrementally introducing agent decisionmaking procedures, and inter-agent negotiation mechanisms. This paper introduces an approach to modelling MAS and a definition of action refinement in Object-Z aimed at addressing these issues.