1. Lecture 10 Multi-Agent Systems Lecture 10 Computer Science WPI Spring 2002 Adina Magda Florea adina@wpi.edu

2. Organizational theories Agent platforms Lecture outline 1 Computational organization theories 2 Organizational dimensions 3 Agent platforms 4 JADE and FIPA

3. 3 1 Computational organization theories Aaron Drajpuch's presentation

4. 4 2 MAS organizational dimensions (a) Structure n Centralized versus decentralized n Flat versus hierarchical

5. 5 Structure Centralized Decentralized GroupTeamHierarchy Community of practice MarketFederation Coalition CooperativeSelf-interested

6. (b) Dynamics Coupling/relationships and roles n Fixed coupling n Variable coupling n Evolutionary coupling (c) Degree of specialization and of redundancy n Non-redundant, specialized organization - every agent A i knows to carry out task T i n Non-redundant, generalist organization - every agent A i knows to carry out tasks T 1 i..T mi i n Redundant, specialized organization - group of agents G ai know to carry out task T i n Redundant, generalist organization - group of agents G ai know to carry out tasks T i1...T im 6

7. Exercise: Propose several organizational solutions (structure, dynamics, degree of specialization and redundancy) for the following group of agents 7 Driller 1 Driller 2 Transporter 3 Transporter 2 Transporter 3 Detector 1 Detector 2 Detector 3

8. Solve problems using agent and MAS technology n Analysis n Design n Implementation n Test n Maintenance Methodologies n Agent-oriented software engineering (see next class) MAS platforms and languages 8 3 Agent platforms

9. Agents must have a support for the tasks they are required to do n distributed execution n communication n sense the environment 9 Agent application (Client) Middleware Operation system Transport layer Network Other agent applications Environment Agent platforms Fat client + thin middleware vs Thin client + fat middeware

10. 10 Andrei Dancus's presentation 4 JADE and FIPA

11. References o J. Ferber. Multi-agent Systems. An Introduction to Distributed Artificial Intelligence. Addison-Wesley, 1999. o K. Carley, L. Gasser. Computational organization theories. In Multiagent Systems - A Modern Approach to Distributed Artficial Intelligence, G. Weiss (Ed.), The MIT Press, 2001, p.299-330. 11