Results 1 - 10
of
32
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 ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 59 (5 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
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.
A lightweight coordination calculus for agent systems
- In Declarative Agent Languages and Technologies
, 2004
"... Abstract. The concept of a social norm is used in multi-agent systems to specify behaviours required of agents interacting in a given social context. We describe a method for specifying social norms that is more compact than existing methods without loss of generality and permits simple but powerful ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 57 (8 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
Abstract. The concept of a social norm is used in multi-agent systems to specify behaviours required of agents interacting in a given social context. We describe a method for specifying social norms that is more compact than existing methods without loss of generality and permits simple but powerful mechanisms for analysis and deployment. We explain the method and how to compute with it. 1 Introduction: A Broad View of Social Norms The Internet raises the prospect of engineering large scale systems that are not engineered in the traditional way, by tightly integrating modest numbers of components familiar to a single design team, but are assembled opportunistically from components built by disparate design teams. Ideally such systems would make it easy for new components
Multi-agent Coordination as Distributed Logic Programming
- In International Conference on Logic Programming
, 2004
"... Abstract. A novel style of multi-agent system specification and deployment is described, in which familiar methods from computational logic are re-interpreted to a new context. One view of multi-agent system design is that coordination is achieved via an interaction model in which participating agen ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 47 (10 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
Abstract. A novel style of multi-agent system specification and deployment is described, in which familiar methods from computational logic are re-interpreted to a new context. One view of multi-agent system design is that coordination is achieved via an interaction model in which participating agents assume roles constrained by the social norms of their shared task; the state of the interaction reflecting the ways these constraints are mutually satisfied within some system for synchronisation that is open and distributed. We show how to harness a process calculus; constraint solving; unfolding and meta-variables for this purpose and discuss the advantages of these methods over traditional approaches. 1
A Theoretical Framework on Proactive Information Exchange in Agent Teamwork
- ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
, 2005
"... Proactive information delivery is critical to achieving effective teamwork. However, existing theories do not adequately address proactive information delivery. This paper presents a formal framework for proactive information delivery in agent teamwork. First, the concept of information need is intr ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 26 (14 self)
- Add to MetaCart
Proactive information delivery is critical to achieving effective teamwork. However, existing theories do not adequately address proactive information delivery. This paper presents a formal framework for proactive information delivery in agent teamwork. First, the concept of information need is introduced. Second, a new modal operator, InfoNeed is used to represent information needs. The properties of the InfoNeed operator and its relationships to other mental modal operators are examined, four types of information needs are formally identified, and axioms for anticipating the information needs of other agents are proposed and justified. Third, the axiom characterizing chains of helpful behavior in large agent teams is given. Fourth, the semantics for two proactive communicative acts (ProInform and 3PTSubscribe) is given using a reformulation of the Cohen-Levesque semantics for communicative acts in terms of the SharedPlans formalism of Grosz and Kraus. The work in this paper not only provides a better understanding of the underlying assumptions required to justify proactive information delivery behavior, but also provides a coherent basis for the specification and design of agent teams with proactive information delivery capabilities.
Modeling and Simulating Human Teamwork Behaviors Using Intelligent Agents
- In Journal of Physics of Life Reviews
, 2004
"... Among researchers in multi-agent systems there has been growing interest in using intelligent agents to model and simulate human teamwork behaviors. Teamwork modeling is important for training humans in gaining collaborative skills, for supporting humans in making critical decisions by proactively ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 21 (1 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
Among researchers in multi-agent systems there has been growing interest in using intelligent agents to model and simulate human teamwork behaviors. Teamwork modeling is important for training humans in gaining collaborative skills, for supporting humans in making critical decisions by proactively gathering, fusing, and sharing information, and for building coherent teams with both humans and agents working effectively on intelligence-intensive problems. Teamwork modeling is also challenging because the research has spanned diverse disciplines from business management to cognitive science, human discourse, and distributed artificial intelligence. This article presents an extensive, but not exhaustive, list of work in the field, where the taxonomy is organized along two main dimensions: team social structure and social behaviors. Along the dimension of social structure, we consider agent-only teams and mixed human/agent teams. Along the dimension of social behaviors, we consider collaborative behaviors, communicative behaviors, helping behaviors, and the underpinning of effective teamwork--- shared mental models. The contribution of this article is that it presents an organizational framework for analyzing a variety of teamwork simulation systems and for further studying simulated teamwork behaviors.
Agents with shared mental models for enhancing team decision-makings
- DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS, SPECIAL ISSUE ON INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY INFORMATICS (IN PRESS) (2004
, 2005
"... Proactive information sharing is a challenging issue faced by intelligence agencies in effectively making critical decisions under time pressure in areas related to homeland security. Motivated by psychological studies on human teams, a team-oriented agent architecture -- CAST (Collaborative Agents ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 21 (9 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
Proactive information sharing is a challenging issue faced by intelligence agencies in effectively making critical decisions under time pressure in areas related to homeland security. Motivated by psychological studies on human teams, a team-oriented agent architecture -- CAST (Collaborative Agents for Simulating Teamwork), was implemented to allow agents in a team to anticipate the information needs of teammates and help them with their information needs proactively, effectively, and timely. In this paper, we extend CAST with a decision-making module . Through two sets of experiments in a simulated battlefield, we evaluate the effectiveness of the decision theoretic proactive communication strategy in improving team performance, and the effectiveness of information fusion as an approach to alleviating the information overload problem faced by distributed decision makers.
A lightweight method for coordination of agent oriented web service
- In In Proceedings of AAAI Spring Symposium on Semantic Web Services
, 2004
"... Large scale multi-agent systems and Web services that are ex-pected automatically to solve problems collaboratively must have ways of understanding the dialogues in which they are engaged. This understanding must be possible in an asyn-chronous environment and it must allow agents to be engaged in m ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 19 (7 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
Large scale multi-agent systems and Web services that are ex-pected automatically to solve problems collaboratively must have ways of understanding the dialogues in which they are engaged. This understanding must be possible in an asyn-chronous environment and it must allow agents to be engaged in many dialogues simultaneously. It should not require cen-tralised control for dialogue coordination, nor should it re-quire individual agents to adapt their knowledge or beliefs solely for the purposes of dialogue. We describe a means of achieving this with the aid of a lightweight protocol.
The RETSINA MAS, a Case Study
- IN SELMAS
, 2003
"... In this paper we identify challenges that confront the largescale multi-agent system (LMAS) designer, and claim that these challenges can be successfully addressed by agent-based software engineering (ABSE), which we consider to be distinct from object-oriented software engineering for multi-age ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 17 (4 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
In this paper we identify challenges that confront the largescale multi-agent system (LMAS) designer, and claim that these challenges can be successfully addressed by agent-based software engineering (ABSE), which we consider to be distinct from object-oriented software engineering for multi-agent systems (OOSE for MAS) in its consideration of agent goal, role, context and attitude as first class objects. We show how we have discovered these principles through our experiences in developing the RETSINA multi-agent system, in implementing specific test applications, and in the derivation of three distinct architectures that help guide and describe the designs of our systems: the individual agent architecture, the functional architecture, and the infrastructure architecture.
The Dynamics of Intention in Collaborative Activity
"... An adequate formulation of collective intentionality is crucial for understanding group activity and for modeling the mental state of participants in such activities. Although work on collective intentionality in philosophy, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science has many points of agreement ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 13 (4 self)
- Add to MetaCart
An adequate formulation of collective intentionality is crucial for understanding group activity and for modeling the mental state of participants in such activities. Although work on collective intentionality in philosophy, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science has many points of agreement, several key issues remain under debate. This paper argues that the dynamics of intention—in particular, the interrelated processes of plan-related group decision making and intention updating— play crucial roles in an explanation of collective intentionality. Furthermore, it is in these dynamic aspects that coordinated group activity differs most from individual activity. The paper specifies a model of the dynamics of agent intentions in the context of collaborative activity. Its integrated treatment of group decision making and coordinated updating of group-related intentions fills an important gap in prior accounts of collective intentionality, thus helping to resolve a long-standing debate about the nature of intentions in group activity. The paper also defines an architecture for collaboration-capable computer agents that satisfies the constraints of the model and is a natural extension of the standard architecture for resource-bounded agents operating as individuals. The new architecture is both more principled and more complete than prior architectures for collaborative multi-agent systems.
Techniques and Directions for Building Very Large Agent Teams
, 2005
"... We have developed probabilistic algorithms that leverage the associates network for distributed plan instantiation, role allocation, information sharing and adjustable autonomy with a team. By developing such new algorithms, we have been able to build teams of hundreds of cooperating agents, and tes ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 11 (0 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
We have developed probabilistic algorithms that leverage the associates network for distributed plan instantiation, role allocation, information sharing and adjustable autonomy with a team. By developing such new algorithms, we have been able to build teams of hundreds of cooperating agents, and test specific behaviors among tens of thousands of agents. In this paper, we describe the algorithms that we have developed, the tests that we subjected them to, and sketch some of the key challenges that remain to be addressed.
