MULTI-AGENT SYSTEM

A 'multi-agent system (MAS)' is a system composed of several agents, collectively capable of reaching goals that are difficult to achieve by an individual agent or monolithic system.

Contents

Overview

The study of multi-agent systems

See also

References

Further reading

External links

Overview

The exact nature of the agents is a matter of some controversy. They are sometimes claimed to be ''autonomous''. For example a household floor cleaning robot can be autonomous in that it is dependent on a human operator only to start it up. On the other hand, in practice, all agents are under active human supervision. Furthermore, the more important the activities of the agent are to humans, the more supervision that they receive. In fact, autonomy is seldom desired. Instead ''interdependent'' systems are needed.
MAS can be claimed to include human agents as well. Human organizations and society in general can be considered an example of a multi-agent system. The Wikipedia community could also be considered a multi-agent system, as explained below.
Multi-agent systems can manifest self-organization and complex behaviors even when the individual strategies of all their agents are simple.
Topics of research in MAS include:
# beliefs, desires, and intentions (BDI),
# cooperation and coordination,
# organisation,
# communication,
# negotiation,
# distributed problem solving,
# multi-agent learning.
# scientific communities
# dependability and fault-tolerance
To share knowledge agents can use Knowledge Query Manipulation Language (KQML) or FIPA's Agent Communication Language (ACL).

The study of multi-agent systems

The study of Multi-Agent Systems is concerned with the development and analysis of sophisticated Artificial intelligence problem solving and control architectures for both single-agent and multiple-agent systems.^[1].

See also

★ Agent-based model

★ Artificial intelligence

★ Complex systems

★ Credit assignment problem

★ Distributed artificial intelligence

★ Emergence

★ Evolutionary computation

★ FIPA

★ GNUBrain: Implementation of a multi agent framework (GPL)

★ Human-based genetic algorithm

★ Intelligent agent

★ KQML

★ Multi-agent planning

★ Scientific Community Metaphor

★ Self-organization

★ Simulated reality

★ Software agent

References

1. UCLA Human Complex Systems Program, 2007.

Further reading

★ Michael Wooldridge, ''An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems'', John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2002, paperback, 366 pages, ISBN 0-471-49691-X.

★ Carl Hewitt and Jeff Inman. ''DAI Betwixt and Between: From "Intelligent Agents" to Open Systems Science'' IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics. Nov./Dec. 1991.

★ ''The Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems'', Publisher: Springer Science+Business Media B.V., formerly Kluwer Academic Publishers B.V. [1]

★ Gerhard Weiss, ed. by, ''Multiagent Systems, A Modern Approach to Distributed Artificial Intelligence'', MIT Press, 1999, ISBN 0-262-23203-0.

★ Jacques Ferber, ''Multi-Agent Systems: An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence'', Addison-Wesley, 1999, ISBN 0-201-36048-9.

★ Sun, Ron, (2006). "Cognition and Multi-Agent Interaction". Cambridge University Press. http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521839645

★ José M. Vidal, ''Fundamentals of Multiagent Systems: with NetLogo Examples''.

External links

★ The Brookings Center on Social and Economic Dynamics

★ UCLA Human Complex Systems Program with recent online publications.

★ The Multi-Agent Systems Lab at U. Mass

★ Teamcore Research Group at USC

★ AgentWise Research Group at KULeuven, Belgium

★ The Collective Agent Based Systems group at the Delft University

★ The Multiagent & Cooperative Robotics Lab at Kansas State University

★ Agent technology Roadmap

★ MultiAgent systems

★ Java-based Multi-Agent Systems

★ The Maia Institute

★ UMBC Agent News. ''(It seems that this site has not been updated since 2003)''

★ SwarmWiki, a collaborative resource for agent-based modelling.

★ MASLAB - Multiagent Systems Lab. at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

★ VisualBots - Freeware multi-agent simulator in Microsoft Excel - Visual Basic syntax

★ A Methodology for the Development of Multi-Agent Systems using JADE

★ System Effectiveness Analysis Simulation (SEAS) - The US Air Force's Multi-Agent Theater Operations Simulation

★ Intelligent Software Agents - The Robotics Institute's research group dedicated to Intelligent Agents

★ Center for Models of Life - Niels Bohr Institute

★ Multi-Agent - Academic website on Multi-Agent Systems