The problem of deriving joint policies for a group of agents that maximize some joint reward function can be modeled as a decentralized partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP).

Decentralized control of a cooperative multi-agent system is the problem faced by multiple decision-makers that share a common set of objectives. The decision-makers may be robots placed at separate geographical locations or computational processes distributed in an information space. It may be impossible or undesirable for these decision-makers to share all their knowledge all the time. Furthermore, exchanging information may incur a cost associated with the required bandwidth or with the risk of revealing it to competing agents. Assuming that communication may not be reliable adds another dimension of complexity to the problem. This paper develops a decision-theoretic solution to this problem, treating both standard actions and communication as explicit choices that the decision maker must consider. The goal is to derive both action policies and communication policies that together optimize a global value function. We present an analytical model to evaluate the trade-o# between the cost of communication and the value of the information received. Finally, to address the complexity of this hard optimization problem, we develop a practical approximation technique based on myopic meta-level control of communication.

Partially observable decentralized decision making in robot teams is fundamentally different from decision making in fully observable problems. Team members cannot simply apply single-agent solution techniques in parallel. Instead, we must turn to game theoretic frameworks to correctly model the problem. While partially observable stochastic games (POSGs) provide a solution model for decentralized robot teams, this model quickly becomes intractable. We propose an algorithm that approximates POSGs as a series of smaller, related Bayesian games, using heuristics such as QMDP to provide the future discounted value of actions. This algorithm trades off limited look-ahead in uncertainty for computational feasibility, and results in policies that are locally optimal with respect to the selected heuristic. Empirical results are provided for both a simple problem for which the full POSG can also be constructed, as well as more complex, robot-inspired, problems.

Decentralized control of cooperative systems captures the operation of a group of decision-makers that share a single global objective. The difficulty in solving optimally such problems arises when the agents lack full observability of the global state of the system when they operate. The general problem has been shown to be NEXP-complete. In this paper, we identify classes of decentralized control problems whose complexity ranges between NEXP and P. In particular, we study problems characterized by independent transitions, independent observations, and goal-oriented objective functions. Two algorithms are shown to solve optimally useful classes of goal-oriented decentralized processes in polynomial time. This paper also studies information sharing among the decision-makers, which can improve their performance. We distinguish between three ways in which agents can exchange information: indirect communication, direct communication and sharing state features that are not controlled by the agents. Our analysis shows that for every class of problems we consider, introducing direct or indirect communication does not change the worst-case complexity. The results provide a better understanding of the complexity of decentralized control problems that arise in practice and facilitate the development of planning algorithms for these problems. 1.

Formal treatment of collaborative multi-agent systems has been lagging behind the rapid progress in sequential decision making by individual agents. Recent work in the area of decentralized Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) has contributed to closing this gap, but the computational complexity of these models remains a serious obstacle. To overcome this complexity barrier, we identify a specific class of decentralized MDPs in which the agents ’ transitions are independent. The class consists of independent collaborating agents that are tied together through a structured global reward function that depends on all of their histories of states and actions. We present a novel algorithm for solving this class of problems and examine its properties, both as an optimal algorithm and as an anytime algorithm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first algorithm to optimally solve a non-trivial subclass of decentralized MDPs. It lays the foundation for further work in this area on both exact and approximate algorithms. 1.

There has been substantial progress with formal models for sequential decision making by individual agents using the Markov decision process (MDP). However, similar treatment of multi-agent systems is lacking. A recent complexity result, showing that solving decentralized MDPs is NEXPhard, provides a partial explanation. To overcome this complexity barrier, we identify a general class of transitionindependent decentralized MDPs that is widely applicable. The class consists of independent collaborating agents that are tied together through a global reward function that depends upon both of their histories. We present a novel algorithm for solving this class of problems and examine its properties. The result is the first effective technique to solve optimally a class of decentralized MDPs. This lays the foundation for further work in this area on both exact and approximate solutions.

Decentralized decision making under uncertainty has been shown to be intractable when each agent has different partial information about the domain. Thus, improving the applicability and scalability of planning algorithms is an important challenge. We present the first memory-bounded dynamic programming algorithm for finite-horizon decentralized POMDPs. A set of heuristics is used to identify relevant points of the infinitely large belief space. Using these belief points, the algorithm successively selects the best joint policies for each horizon. The algorithm is extremely efficient, having linear time and space complexity with respect to the horizon length. Experimental results show that it can handle horizons that are multiple orders of magnitude larger than what was previously possible, while achieving the same or better solution quality. These results significantly increase the applicability of decentralized decision-making techniques. 1

We present multi-agent A * (MAA*), the first complete and optimal heuristic search algorithm for solving decentralized partiallyobservable Markov decision problems (DEC-POMDPs) with finite horizon. The algorithm is suitable for computing optimal plans for a cooperative group of agents that operate in a stochastic environment such as multirobot coordination, network traffic control, or distributed resource allocation. Solving such problems effectively is a major challenge in the area of planning under uncertainty. Our solution is based on a synthesis of classical heuristic search and decentralized control theory. Experimental results show that MAA * has significant advantages. We introduce an anytime variant of MAA * and conclude with a discussion of promising extensions such as an approach to solving infinite horizon problems. 1

Security in multiagent systems is commonly defined as the ability of the system to deal with intentional threats from other agents. This paper focuses on domains where such intentional threats are caused by unseen adversaries whose actions or payoffs are unknown. In such domains, action randomization can effectively deteriorate an adversary’s capability to predict and exploit an agent/agent team’s actions. Unfortunately, little attention has been paid to intentional randomization of agents ’ policies in single-agent or decentralized (PO)MDPs without significantly sacrificing rewards or breaking down coordination. This paper provides two key contributions to remedy this situation. First, it provides three novel algorithms, one based on a non-linear program and two based on linear programs (LP), to randomize single-agent policies, while attaining a certain level of expected reward. Second, it provides Rolling Down Randomization (RDR), a new algorithm that efficiently generates randomized policies for decentralized POMDPs via the single-agent LP method.

Efficient coordination among large numbers of heterogeneous agents promises to revolutionize the way in which some complex tasks, such as responding to urban disasters can be performed. However, state of the art coordination algorithms are not capable of achieving efficient and effective coordination when a team is very large. Building on recent successful token-based algorithms for task allocation and information sharing, we have developed an integrated and efficient approach to effective coordination of large scale teams. We use tokens to encapsulate anything that needs to be shared by the team, including information, tasks and resources. The tokens are efficiently routed through the team via the use of local decision theoretic models. Each token is used to improve the routing of other tokens leading to a dramatic performance improvement when the algorithms work together. We present results from an implementation of this approach which demonstrates its ability to coordinate large teams. 1.