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243
A Survey of Multi-Agent Organizational Paradigms
- The Knowledge Engineering Review
, 2005
"... Many researchers have demonstrated that the organizational design employed by a system can have a significant, quantitative effect on its performance characteristics. A range of organizational strategies have emerged from this line of research, each with different strengths and weaknesses. In this a ..."
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Cited by 103 (2 self)
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Many researchers have demonstrated that the organizational design employed by a system can have a significant, quantitative effect on its performance characteristics. A range of organizational strategies have emerged from this line of research, each with different strengths and weaknesses. In this article we present a survey of the major organizational paradigms used in multi-agent systems. These include hierarchies, holarchies, coalitions, teams, congregations, societies, federations, and matrix organizations. We will provide a description of each, discuss their costs and benefits, and provide examples of how they may be instantiated and maintained. 1
SODA: Societies and Infrastructures in the Analysis and Design of Agent-based Systems
- In this volume
, 2000
"... . The notion of society should play a central role in agent-oriented software engineering as a first-class abstraction around which complex systems can be designed and built as multi-agent systems. We argue that an effective agentoriented methodology should account for inter-agent aspects by prov ..."
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Cited by 85 (13 self)
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. The notion of society should play a central role in agent-oriented software engineering as a first-class abstraction around which complex systems can be designed and built as multi-agent systems. We argue that an effective agentoriented methodology should account for inter-agent aspects by providing engineers with specific abstractions and tools for the analysis and design of agent societies and agent environments. In this paper, we outline the SODA agent-oriented methodology for the analysis and design of Internet-based systems. Based on the core notion of task, SODA promotes the separation of individual and social issues, and focuses on the social aspects of agent-oriented software engineering. In particular, SODA allow the agent environment to be explicitly modelled and mapped onto suitably-defined agent infrastructures. 1
Distributed covering by ant-robots using evaporating traces
- IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation
, 1999
"... Abstract—Ants and other insects are known to use chemicals called pheromones for various communication and coordination tasks. In this paper, we investigate the ability of a group of robots, that communicate by leaving traces, to perform the task of cleaning the floor of an un-mapped building, or an ..."
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Cited by 81 (1 self)
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Abstract—Ants and other insects are known to use chemicals called pheromones for various communication and coordination tasks. In this paper, we investigate the ability of a group of robots, that communicate by leaving traces, to perform the task of cleaning the floor of an un-mapped building, or any task that requires the traversal of an unknown region. More specifically, we consider robots which leave chemical odor traces that evaporate with time, and are able to evaluate the strength of smell at every model is a decentralized multiagent adaptive system with a shared memory, moving on a graph whose vertices are the floor-tiles. We describe three methods of covering a graph in a distributed fashion, using smell traces that gradually vanish with time, and show that they all result in eventual task completion, two of them in a time polynomial in the number of tiles. As opposed to existing traversal methods (e.g., depth first search), our algorithms are adaptive: they will complete the traversal of the graph even if some of the a(ge)nts die or the graph changes (edges/vertices added or deleted) during the execution, as long as the graph stays connected. Another advantage of our agent interaction processes is the ability of agents to use noisy information at the cost of longer cover time. Index Terms—Ant-robotics, covering, exploration, multi-agent systems, robotics.
Towards socially sophisticated BDI agents.
- In ICMAS (4th International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems),
, 2000
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Challenges and Research Directions in Agent-Oriented Software Engineering
, 2004
"... Agent-based computing is a promising approach for developing applications in complex domains. However, despite the great deal of research in the area, a number of challenges still need to be faced (i) to make agent-based computing a widely accepted paradigm in software engineering practice, and (ii ..."
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Cited by 59 (5 self)
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Agent-based computing is a promising approach for developing applications in complex domains. However, despite the great deal of research in the area, a number of challenges still need to be faced (i) to make agent-based computing a widely accepted paradigm in software engineering practice, and (ii) to turn agent-oriented software abstractions into practical tools for facing the complexity of modern application areas. In this paper, after a short introduction to the key concepts of agent-based computing (as they pertain to software engineering), we characterise the emerging key issues in multiagent systems (MASs) engineering. In particular, we show that such issues can be analysed in terms of three different ‘‘scales of observation’’, i.e., in analogy with the scales of observation of physical phenomena, in terms of micro, macro, and meso scales. Based on this characterisation, we discuss, for each scale of observation, what are the peculiar engineering issues arising, the key research challenges to be solved, and the most promising research directions to be explored in the future.
Embodiment and Interaction in Socially Intelligent Life-Like Agents
, 1999
"... This chapter addresses embodied social interaction inlif6 like agents. Embodiment is discussedf rom both arti cial intelligence and psychology viewpoints. Di#erent degreesof embodiment in biological, virtual and robotic agents are discussed, given the example of a bottomup, behavior-orient ..."
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Cited by 55 (23 self)
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This chapter addresses embodied social interaction inlif6 like agents. Embodiment is discussedf rom both arti cial intelligence and psychology viewpoints. Di#erent degreesof embodiment in biological, virtual and robotic agents are discussed, given the example of a bottomup, behavior-oriented, dynamic control of virtual robots. A `dancing with strangers' experiment shows how the same principles can be applied to physical robot-human interaction. We then discuss the issue of sociality which di#ers in di#erent academic communities with respect to which roles are attributed to genes, memes, and the individual embodied agent.
Specifying norm-governed computational societies
- ACM TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTATIONAL LOGIC
, 2007
"... Electronic markets, dispute resolution and negotiation protocols are three types of application domains that can be viewed as open agent societies. Key characteristics of such societies are agent heterogeneity, conflicting individual goals and unpredictable behaviour. Members of such societies may f ..."
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Cited by 53 (12 self)
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Electronic markets, dispute resolution and negotiation protocols are three types of application domains that can be viewed as open agent societies. Key characteristics of such societies are agent heterogeneity, conflicting individual goals and unpredictable behaviour. Members of such societies may fail to, or even choose not to, conform to the norms governing their interactions. It has been argued that systems of this type should have a formal, declarative, verifiable, and meaningful semantics. We present a theoretical and computational framework being developed for the executable specification of open agent societies. We adopt an external perspective and view societies as instances of normative systems. In this paper we demonstrate how the framework can be applied to specifying and executing a contract-net protocol. The specification is formalised in two action languages, the C+ language and the Event Calculus, and executed using respective software implementations, the Causal Calculator and the Society Visualiser. We evaluate our executable specification in the light of the presented case study, discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the employed action languages for the specification of open agent societies.
Artificial Social Systems
- Computers and AI
, 1995
"... An artificial social system is a set of restrictions on agents' behaviors in a multiagent environment. Its role is to allow agents to coexist in a shared environment and pursue their respective goals in the presence of other agents. This paper argues that artificial social systems exist in prac ..."
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Cited by 53 (0 self)
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An artificial social system is a set of restrictions on agents' behaviors in a multiagent environment. Its role is to allow agents to coexist in a shared environment and pursue their respective goals in the presence of other agents. This paper argues that artificial social systems exist in practically every multi-agent system, and play a major role in the performance and effectiveness of the agents. We propose artificial social systems as an explicit and formal object of study, and investigate several basic issues that arise in their design. Keywords: Social Laws, Multi-Agent Systems, Off-Line Design This work was supported in part by the US-Israel Binational Foundation. The work of the first author was supported by an Alon Fellowship, and by a Helen and Marcus Kimmelman Career Development Chair. The second author was supported in part by an Eshkol Fellowship of the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology, and later by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Part of the resea...
Choosing Social Laws for Multi-Agent Systems: Minimality and Simplicity
- Artificial Intelligence
, 2000
"... The design of social laws for artificial agent societies is a basic approach to coordinating multi-agent systems. It exposes the spectrum between fully-centralized and fully-decentralized coordination mechanisms. Useful social laws set constraints on the agents' activities which allow them t ..."
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Cited by 50 (1 self)
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The design of social laws for artificial agent societies is a basic approach to coordinating multi-agent systems. It exposes the spectrum between fully-centralized and fully-decentralized coordination mechanisms. Useful social laws set constraints on the agents' activities which allow them to work individually in a mutually compatible manner.
