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103
A Roadmap of Agent Research and Development
- INT JOURNAL OF AUTONOMOUS AGENTS AND MULTI-AGENT SYSTEMS
, 1998
"... This paper provides an overview of research and development activities in the field of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems. It aims to identify key concepts and applications, and to indicate how they relate to one-another. Some historical context to the field of agent-based computing is give ..."
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Cited by 508 (8 self)
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This paper provides an overview of research and development activities in the field of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems. It aims to identify key concepts and applications, and to indicate how they relate to one-another. Some historical context to the field of agent-based computing is given, and contemporary research directions are presented. Finally, a range of open issues and future challenges are highlighted.
Trends in Cooperative Distributed Problem Solving
- IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering
, 1995
"... Introduction Cooperative Distributed Problem-Solving (CDPS) studies how a loosely-coupled network of problem solvers can work together to solve problems that are beyond their individual capabilities. Each problem-solving node in the network is capable of sophisticated problem solving and can work in ..."
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Cited by 188 (15 self)
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Introduction Cooperative Distributed Problem-Solving (CDPS) studies how a loosely-coupled network of problem solvers can work together to solve problems that are beyond their individual capabilities. Each problem-solving node in the network is capable of sophisticated problem solving and can work independently, but the problems faced by the nodes cannot be completed without cooperation. Cooperation is necessary because no single node has sufficient expertise, resources, and information to solve a problem, and different nodes might have expertise for solving different parts of the problem. For example, if the problem is to design a house, one node might have expertise on the strength of structural materials, another on the space requirements for different types of rooms, another on plumbing, another on electrical wiring, and so on. Different nodes might have different resources: some might be very fast at computation, others might have connections that speed communication, whil
Partial global planning: A coordination framework for distributed hypothesis formation
- Systems, Man and Cybernetics, IEEE Transactions on
, 1991
"... Abstruct-For distributed sensor network applications, a practical approach to generating complete interpretations from distributed data must coordinate how separate, concurrently running systems form, exchange, and fuse their individual hypotheses to form consistent interpretations. Partial global p ..."
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Cited by 167 (38 self)
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Abstruct-For distributed sensor network applications, a practical approach to generating complete interpretations from distributed data must coordinate how separate, concurrently running systems form, exchange, and fuse their individual hypotheses to form consistent interpretations. Partial global planning provides a framework for coordinating multiple AI systems that are cooperating in a distributed sensor network. By combining a variety of coordination techniques into a single, unifying framework, partial global planning enables separate AI systems to reason about their roles and responsibilities as part of group problem solving, and to modify their planned processing and communication actions to act as a more coherent team. Partial global planning is uniquely suited for coordinating systems that are working in continuous, dynamic, and unpredictable domains because it interleaves coordination with action and allows systems to make effective decisions despite incomplete and possibly obsolete information about network activity. The authors have implemented and extensively evaluated partial global planning in a simulated vehicle monitoring application, and have identified promising extensions to their framework I.
Coordination Techniques for Distributed Artificial Intelligence
, 1996
"... Coordination, the process by which an agent reasons about its local actions and the (anticipated) actions of others to try and ensure the community acts in a coherent manner, is perhaps the key problem of the discipline of Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI). In order to make advances it is im ..."
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Cited by 112 (1 self)
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Coordination, the process by which an agent reasons about its local actions and the (anticipated) actions of others to try and ensure the community acts in a coherent manner, is perhaps the key problem of the discipline of Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI). In order to make advances it is important that the theories and principles which guide this central activity are uncovered and analysed in a systematic and rigourous manner. To this end, this paper models agent communities using a distributed goal search formalism, and argues that commitments (pledges to undertake a specific course of action) and conventions (means of monitoring commitments in changing circumstances) are the foundation of coordination in all DAI systems. 1. The Coordination Problem Participation in any social situation should be both simultaneously constraining, in that agents must make a contribution to it, and yet enriching, in that participation provides resources and opportunities which would otherwise ...
Generalizing the Partial Global Planning Algorithm
- INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT AND COOPERATIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS
, 1992
"... The distributed coordination problem can be described as how should the local scheduling of activities at each agent be affected by non-local concerns and constraints. Partial global planning (PGP) is a flexible approach to distributed coordination that allows agents to respond dynamically to thei ..."
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Cited by 108 (29 self)
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The distributed coordination problem can be described as how should the local scheduling of activities at each agent be affected by non-local concerns and constraints. Partial global planning (PGP) is a flexible approach to distributed coordination that allows agents to respond dynamically to their current situation. It is based on detecting relationships in the computational goal structures of the distributed agents. However, the detailed PGP mechanisms depend on the existence and availability of certain characteristics and structures ...
A Retrospective View of FA/C Distributed Problem Solving
, 1991
"... The Functionally-Accurate, Cooperative (FA/C) paradigm provides a model for task decomposition and agent interaction in a distributed problem-solving system. In this model, agents need not have all the necessary information locally to solve their subproblems, and agents interact through the asynchro ..."
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Cited by 105 (25 self)
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The Functionally-Accurate, Cooperative (FA/C) paradigm provides a model for task decomposition and agent interaction in a distributed problem-solving system. In this model, agents need not have all the necessary information locally to solve their subproblems, and agents interact through the asynchronous, co-routine exchange of partial results. This model leads to the possibility that agents may behave in an uncoordinated manner. This paper traces the development of a series of increasingly sophisticated cooperative control mechanisms for coordinating agents. They include integrating data- and goal-directed control, using static meta-level information specified by an organizational structure, and using dynamic meta-level information developed in partial global planning. The framework of distributed search motivates these developments. Major themes of this work are the importance of sophisticated local control, the interplay between local control and cooperative control, and the use of s...
Environment Centered Analysis and Design of Coordination Mechanisms
, 1995
"... Coordination, as the act of managing interdependencies between activities, is one of the central research issues in Distributed Artificial Intelligence. Many researchers have shown that there is no single best organization or coordination mechanism for all environments. Problems in coordinating the ..."
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Cited by 103 (24 self)
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Coordination, as the act of managing interdependencies between activities, is one of the central research issues in Distributed Artificial Intelligence. Many researchers have shown that there is no single best organization or coordination mechanism for all environments. Problems in coordinating the activities of distributed intelligent agents appear in many domains: the control of distributed sensor networks; multi-agent scheduling of people and/or machines; distributed diagnosis of errors in local-area or telephone networks; concurrent engineering; `software agents' for information gathering. The design of coordination mechanisms for group...
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 101 (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
ISLANDER: an electronic institutions editor
- In First International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent systems
, 2002
"... In this paper we present ISLANDER, a tool for the specification and verification of agent mediated electronic institutions. We have defined a textual declarative language for the specification of the components of an institution. Also an IS-LANDER editor is presented. It facilitates the work of the ..."
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Cited by 98 (8 self)
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In this paper we present ISLANDER, a tool for the specification and verification of agent mediated electronic institutions. We have defined a textual declarative language for the specification of the components of an institution. Also an IS-LANDER editor is presented. It facilitates the work of the institution designer permitting the combination of graphical and textual specifications. We take the stance that a verifiable formal specification is needed before starting the development of complex systems. This tool is our first step towards having a framework for the design and development of infrastructures for open multi-agent systems. Categories and Subject Descriptors
Cooperative Multiagent Systems: A Personal View of the State of the Art
- IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering
, 1999
"... Scientific research and practice in multiagent systems focuses on constructing computational frameworks, principles, and models for how both small and large societies of intelligent, semiautonomous agents can interact effectively to achieve their goals. This article provides a personal view of the ..."
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Cited by 84 (0 self)
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Scientific research and practice in multiagent systems focuses on constructing computational frameworks, principles, and models for how both small and large societies of intelligent, semiautonomous agents can interact effectively to achieve their goals. This article provides a personal view of the key application areas for cooperative multiagent systems, the major intellectual problems in building such systems, the underlying principles governing their design, and the major directions and challenges for future developments in this field. Index Terms---Multiagent systems, coordination, cooperation, distributed problem solving, distributed artificial intelligence, computational organizations. ------------------------------ ###p### ------------------------------ 1INTRODUCTION ULTIAGENT systems are computational systems in which two or more agents interact or work together to perform some set of tasks or to satisfy some set of goals. These systems may be comprised of homogeneous o...
