An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems

An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems
Author: Michael Wooldridge
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 484
Release: 2009-06-22
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0470519460
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The study of multi-agent systems (MAS) focuses on systems in which many intelligent agents interact with each other. These agents are considered to be autonomous entities such as software programs or robots. Their interactions can either be cooperative (for example as in an ant colony) or selfish (as in a free market economy). This book assumes only basic knowledge of algorithms and discrete maths, both of which are taught as standard in the first or second year of computer science degree programmes. A basic knowledge of artificial intelligence would useful to help understand some of the issues, but is not essential. The book’s main aims are: To introduce the student to the concept of agents and multi-agent systems, and the main applications for which they are appropriate To introduce the main issues surrounding the design of intelligent agents To introduce the main issues surrounding the design of a multi-agent society To introduce a number of typical applications for agent technology After reading the book the student should understand: The notion of an agent, how agents are distinct from other software paradigms (e.g. objects) and the characteristics of applications that lend themselves to agent-oriented software The key issues associated with constructing agents capable of intelligent autonomous action and the main approaches taken to developing such agents The key issues in designing societies of agents that can effectively cooperate in order to solve problems, including an understanding of the key types of multi-agent interactions possible in such systems The main application areas of agent-based systems

An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems

An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems
Author: Michael Wooldridge
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2002-05-13
Genre: Computers
ISBN:
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This book will introduce students to intelligent agents, explain what these agents are, how they are constructed and how they can be made to co-operate effectively with one another in large-scale systems.

Issues in Multi-Agent Systems

Issues in Multi-Agent Systems
Author: Antonio Moreno
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2007-12-22
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 376438543X
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Discover the latest developments and issues in multi-agent systems by exploring their applications in various domains such as electronic markets, e-tourism, ambience intelligence, and complex system analysis. The book is written by two researchers with hands-on experience in technology transfer. With their practical focus, they help you see how agent technology can be applied in many new services and environments.

Distributed Coordination of Multi-agent Networks

Distributed Coordination of Multi-agent Networks
Author: Wei Ren
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2010-11-30
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0857291696
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Distributed Coordination of Multi-agent Networks introduces problems, models, and issues such as collective periodic motion coordination, collective tracking with a dynamic leader, and containment control with multiple leaders, and explores ideas for their solution. Solving these problems extends the existing application domains of multi-agent networks; for example, collective periodic motion coordination is appropriate for applications involving repetitive movements, collective tracking guarantees tracking of a dynamic leader by multiple followers in the presence of reduced interaction and partial measurements, and containment control enables maneuvering of multiple followers by multiple leaders.

Software Engineering for Multi-Agent Systems IV

Software Engineering for Multi-Agent Systems IV
Author: Alessandro Garcia
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2006-04-27
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3540335838
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This book presents a coherent, well-balanced survey of recent advances in software engineering approaches to the design and analysis of realistic large-scale multi-agent systems (MAS). The chapters included are devoted to various techniques and methods used to cope with the complexity of real-world MAS. Reflecting the importance of agent properties in today's software systems, the power of agent-based software engineering is illustrated using examples that are representative of successful applications.

Software Engineering for Multi-Agent Systems V

Software Engineering for Multi-Agent Systems V
Author: Ricardo Choren
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2007-08-22
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3540731318
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The papers selected for this volume present advances in software engineering approaches to develop dependable high-quality multi-agent systems. These papers describe experiences and techniques associated with large multi-agent systems in a wide variety of problem domains. They cover fault tolerance, exception handling and diagnosis, security and trust, verification and validation, as well as early development phases and software reuse.

Beyond Artificial Intelligence

Beyond Artificial Intelligence
Author: Jozef Kelemen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2012-10-20
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3642344224
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Products of modern artificial intelligence (AI) have mostly been formed by the views, opinions and goals of the “insiders”, i.e. people usually with engineering background who are driven by the force that can be metaphorically described as the pursuit of the craft of Hephaestus. However, since the present-day technology allows for tighter and tighter mergence of the “natural” everyday human life with machines of immense complexity, the responsible reaction of the scientific community should be based on cautious reflection of what really lies beyond AI, i.e. on the frontiers where the tumultuous ever-growing and ever-changing cloud of AI touches the rest of the world. The chapters of this boo are based on the selected subset of the presentations that were delivered by their respective authors at the conference “Beyond AI: Interdisciplinary Aspects of Artificial Intelligence” held in Pilsen in December 2011. From its very definition, the reflection of the phenomena that lie beyond AI must be inherently interdisciplinary. And so is this book: all the authors took part in a mutual transdisciplinary dialogue after explaining their views on AI not only to a narrow selection of their usual close peers with the same specialisation, but to a much broader audience of various experts from AI engineering, natural sciences, humanities and philosophy. The chapters of this book thus reflect results of such a dialogue.

Multi-Agent Systems - Modeling, Control, Programming, Simulations and Applications

Multi-Agent Systems - Modeling, Control, Programming, Simulations and Applications
Author: Nicolas Radley
Publisher:
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2016-04-01
Genre:
ISBN: 9781681173139
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Multiagent systems consist of multiple autonomous entities having different information and/or diverging interests. The study of multiagent systems (MAS) focuses on systems in which many intelligent agents interact with each other. The agents are considered to be autonomous entities, such as software programs or robots. Their interactions can be either cooperative or selfish. That is, the agents can share a common goal (e.g. an ant colony), or they can pursue their own interests. Multi-agent systems can be used to solve problems that are difficult or impossible for an individual agent or a monolithic system to solve. Intelligence may include some methodic, functional, procedural approach, algorithmic search or reinforcement learning. Although there is considerable overlap, a multi-agent system is not always the same as an agent-based model (ABM). The goal of an ABM is to search for explanatory insight into the collective behavior of obeying simple rules, typically in natural systems, rather than in solving specific practical or engineering problems. Topics where multi-agent systems research may deliver an appropriate approach include online trading, disaster response, and modelling social structures. Multi-agent systems consist of agents and their environment. Typically multi-agent systems research refers to software agents. However, the agents in a multi-agent system could equally well be robots, humans or human teams. A multi-agent system may contain combined humanagent teams. Agent systems are open and extensible systems that allow for the deployment of autonomous and proactive software components. Multi-agent systems have been brought up and used in several application domains. This book, Multi-Agent Systems - Modeling, Control, Programming, Simulations and Applications, is intended to provide an emphasise on the multi-agent technology, products and industrial applications.

Multi-Objective Decision Making

Multi-Objective Decision Making
Author: Diederik M. Zhou
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 111
Release: 2022-05-31
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3031015762
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Many real-world decision problems have multiple objectives. For example, when choosing a medical treatment plan, we want to maximize the efficacy of the treatment, but also minimize the side effects. These objectives typically conflict, e.g., we can often increase the efficacy of the treatment, but at the cost of more severe side effects. In this book, we outline how to deal with multiple objectives in decision-theoretic planning and reinforcement learning algorithms. To illustrate this, we employ the popular problem classes of multi-objective Markov decision processes (MOMDPs) and multi-objective coordination graphs (MO-CoGs). First, we discuss different use cases for multi-objective decision making, and why they often necessitate explicitly multi-objective algorithms. We advocate a utility-based approach to multi-objective decision making, i.e., that what constitutes an optimal solution to a multi-objective decision problem should be derived from the available information about user utility. We show how different assumptions about user utility and what types of policies are allowed lead to different solution concepts, which we outline in a taxonomy of multi-objective decision problems. Second, we show how to create new methods for multi-objective decision making using existing single-objective methods as a basis. Focusing on planning, we describe two ways to creating multi-objective algorithms: in the inner loop approach, the inner workings of a single-objective method are adapted to work with multi-objective solution concepts; in the outer loop approach, a wrapper is created around a single-objective method that solves the multi-objective problem as a series of single-objective problems. After discussing the creation of such methods for the planning setting, we discuss how these approaches apply to the learning setting. Next, we discuss three promising application domains for multi-objective decision making algorithms: energy, health, and infrastructure and transportation. Finally, we conclude by outlining important open problems and promising future directions.

Multiagent Systems, second edition

Multiagent Systems, second edition
Author: Gerhard Weiss
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 917
Release: 2016-10-28
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0262533871
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The new edition of an introduction to multiagent systems that captures the state of the art in both theory and practice, suitable as textbook or reference. Multiagent systems are made up of multiple interacting intelligent agents—computational entities to some degree autonomous and able to cooperate, compete, communicate, act flexibly, and exercise control over their behavior within the frame of their objectives. They are the enabling technology for a wide range of advanced applications relying on distributed and parallel processing of data, information, and knowledge relevant in domains ranging from industrial manufacturing to e-commerce to health care. This book offers a state-of-the-art introduction to multiagent systems, covering the field in both breadth and depth, and treating both theory and practice. It is suitable for classroom use or independent study. This second edition has been completely revised, capturing the tremendous developments in multiagent systems since the first edition appeared in 1999. Sixteen of the book's seventeen chapters were written for this edition; all chapters are by leaders in the field, with each author contributing to the broad base of knowledge and experience on which the book rests. The book covers basic concepts of computational agency from the perspective of both individual agents and agent organizations; communication among agents; coordination among agents; distributed cognition; development and engineering of multiagent systems; and background knowledge in logics and game theory. Each chapter includes references, many illustrations and examples, and exercises of varying degrees of difficulty. The chapters and the overall book are designed to be self-contained and understandable without additional material. Supplemental resources are available on the book's Web site. Contributors Rafael Bordini, Felix Brandt, Amit Chopra, Vincent Conitzer, Virginia Dignum, Jürgen Dix, Ed Durfee, Edith Elkind, Ulle Endriss, Alessandro Farinelli, Shaheen Fatima, Michael Fisher, Nicholas R. Jennings, Kevin Leyton-Brown, Evangelos Markakis, Lin Padgham, Julian Padget, Iyad Rahwan, Talal Rahwan, Alex Rogers, Jordi Sabater-Mir, Yoav Shoham, Munindar P. Singh, Kagan Tumer, Karl Tuyls, Wiebe van der Hoek, Laurent Vercouter, Meritxell Vinyals, Michael Winikoff, Michael Wooldridge, Shlomo Zilberstein