A Petri-net-based model for the mathematical analysis of multi-agent systems

Agent technology is widely recognized as a new paradigm for the design of concurrent software and systems. The aim of this paper is to give a mathematical foundation for the design and the analysis of multi-agent systems by means of a Petri-net-based model. The proposed model is based on place/transition nets, one of the simplest classes of Petri nets. The main difference is that each token, representing an agent, is also a place/transition net. It is sufficiently simple for the mathematical analysis, but has enough modeling power.