TY - CONF CY - France ID - deploy94 UR - http://deploy-eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/94/ A1 - Laibinis, Linas A1 - Troubitsyna, Elena A1 - Iliasov, Alexei A1 - Romanovsky, Alexander Y1 - 2009/05// N2 - Agent technology offers a number of advantages over traditional distributed systems, such as asynchronous communication, anonymity of individual agents and ability to change operational context. However, it is notoriously difficult to ensure dependability of agent systems. In this paper we present a formal approach for the top-down development of fault tolerant middleware for agent systems. We demonstrate how to develop the middleware that besides providing agent coordination is also able to cope with their failures. We focus on handling agent crushes and transient faults caused by volatile communication environment. We argue that formal development of middleware with integrated fault tolerance mechanisms has potential to enhance dependability of an agent system. PB - LAAS, France TI - Fault Tolerant Middleware for Agent Systems: A Refinement Approach M2 - Toulouse, France AV - none T2 - 12th European Workshop on Dependable Computing (EWDC 2009) ER -