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Over the last decade or so, the notions underlying agent-based systems have become almost commonplace, yet were virtually unknown in earlier years. Not only have agent-based systems moved into the mainstream, they have spread beyond a niche area of interest in artificial intelligence, and have come to be a significant and generic computing technology. The dramatic and sustained growth of interest...
Though agents are becoming increasingly popular across a wide range of applications, the rapid growth of the field has led to much confusion regarding agents and their functionality. One part of this confusion is that it is now generally recognised that there is no agreement on what it is that makes something an agent. For example, Franklin and Graesser [67] provide evidence of the degree of current...
It is the interaction between individual agents by which goals are typically achieved in multi-agent systems [167]. The form of such interaction can range over interleaved actions, combined actions, message-passing or high-level linguistic utterances such as speech acts, depending on the nature of the agents themselves. This suggests that an account of interaction is only possible through an understanding...
As elaborated in the previous chapter, fundamental to the operation of multi-agent systems is the concept of cooperation and engagement between individual agents. If single-agent systems can both cooperate and engage others, they can exploit the capabilities and functionality of others to achieve their own individual goals. Once this is achieved, then such systems can potentially move beyond the advantages...
Now that the inter-agent relationships that arise from the application of the SMART framework have been identified and analysed, the requisite deliberative qualities of such agents for effective and efficient action in order to gain this benefit can be addressed. An individual agent can achieve this, first through the appropriate use of its own capabilities, and second through the successful exploitation...
While we have considered many aspects of agent systems, especially the configurations that arise in systems of multiple interacting agents, we have not explicitly addressed the issues underlying interaction itself. In this chapter we re-examine what it means for an agent to be autonomous and, more specifically, what that entails for an adequate model of interaction between such agents. As we have...
The models defined in SMART provide a structure that can be applied directly to describe and analyse multi-agent systems and theories, and to derive models that highlight relevant aspects. In this chapter, the path from the initial SMART framework to the modelling of such specific systems is completed by describing a mechanism for implementing the contract net protocol.
While many different and contrasting single-agent architectures have been proposed, perhaps the most successful are those based on the belief-desire-intention (BDI) framework. There is a wealth of research that has accumulated on both the formal and theoretical aspects of BDI agents through the use and development of various logics, for example, on the one hand, and on the practical aspects through...
Social dependence networks [155] (SDNs) are structures that form the basis of a computational model of social power theory as originally proposed by Castel-franchi [18]. Essentially, they are taxonomies of social relationships that can be derived from the ‘power’ agents have over one another as a result of their ability to achieve each other’s goals. Based on these taxonomies, social reasoning mechanisms...
Agents operating in a common society need to be constrained in order to avoid and address conflicts, make agreements, reduce complexity, and, generally, to achieve a desirable social order [28, 30, 31, 124]. This is the role of norms, which represent what ought to be done by a set of agents, and whose fulfillment can be seen as a public good when the benefits that they bring can be enjoyed by the...
Before the agent paradigm experiences widespread use, there are many issues that need to be resolved [111]. Perhaps most important, however, is the very urgent need for agent development methodologies and agent frameworks to enable developers to implement agent-based systems effectively and quickly. The development of such systems can also provide much needed experience to aid in answering other questions.
This book has described a generally applicable notion of agenthood that is not an attempt to create yet another agent definition, but one that relates to existing concepts and approaches to encompass them. In the definitions provided, we set up a sound conceptual base on which to elaborate more sophisticated definitions and architectures, while at the same time constructing a framework that can accommodate...
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