Quantifying the relationship between software design principles and performance in Jason: a case study with simulated mobile robots

Patrick Gavigan, Babak Esfandiari

Abstract: We investigated the relationship between various design approaches of AgentSpeak code for Jason Beliefs-Desires-Intentions (BDI) agents and their performance in a simulated automotive collision avoidance scenario. Also explored was how the approaches affected software maintainability, assessed through coupling, cohesion, and cyclomatic complexity. We then compared each agent’s performance, specifically their reasoning cycle duration and their responsiveness. Our findings revealed that agents with looser coupling and higher cohesion are more responsive to stimuli, implying that more maintainable AgentSpeak code can result in better performing agents. Performance was inversely related to cyclomatic complexity.