# Designing Multi-Agent System Organisations for Flexible Runtime Behaviour
## 2 Organisation-Oriented MAS Design and Development
### Organisation Meta-Models for MAS
#### 2.2.1 Comparison of Existing Organisation Meta-Models and Approaches to Coordination
If another medic agent is not available (even if we previously agreed to do the rescue together), I am happy to request assistance with carrying the stretcher from another capable agent nearby so that the rescue can be completed in a timely way._
6. Perform tasks autonomously: _As an officer agent, I wish to clear the area of bystanders so that the medic agents can proceed with search and rescue tasks._
7. Help others if I can: _As an officer agent, if I am capable of carrying a stretcher; I am willing to help medic agents in this way if asked, even though this is not part of my default role responsibilities, so that the rescue can be completed in a timely way._
8. Share information about my intentions and actions: _As a collaborating agent, I will share information with appropriate other agents to inform them of my intentions and actions performed so that we can all work together efficiently._  
Selected organisation meta-models and frameworks for social coordination are examined in Table 3 with particular reference to how they address the requirements highlighted in these use case scenarios. These were each chosen because they address some element of agent adaptability in a dynamic situation. These models provide a representation of a number of different approaches. These include dynamic allocation of agents to tasks, using policies to guide agent behaviour, using artefacts and commitments to define interactions, using contracts to define responsibilities, and creating dynamic plans between agents. The JaCaMo+ framework includes a number of different underlying models and is broader than one meta-model. It is included because it also addresses some of the requirements. JaCaMo+ uses the MOISE+ [70] organisation meta-model. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Meta-Model** & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Agent User Story Requirements Addressed**} \\ \hline  & **1** & **2** & **3** & **4** & **5** & **6** & **7** & **8** \\ \hline OMACS [23] & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) \\ JacaMo[24], JaCaMo+ [25] & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) \\ Moise [26; 70] & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) \\ OperA [27], OperA+ [28] & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) \\ SharedPlans[29] & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) \\ OJazziC [21] & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Agent user story requirements addressed by each approach. Challenges for each meta-model include how to establish agent awareness and how to enable agents to coordinate their individual behaviour at runtime to achieve the completion of tasks that require multiple agents to work together (without relying on detailed scripts defined at design time). JaCaMo+ and OperA+ provide features based on social contracts between agents and separate agent internals from an interaction layer that is specified externally. The interaction layer is used to specify protocols to direct agents in their runtime behaviour. In JaCaMo+, agents use explicit commitment-based interactions, based on the work of [PERSON] [71]; however, in JaCaMo+, these commitments are represented in artefacts external to the agents.