CPSC 601.72 and 599.30 Foundations of Multi-Agent Systems Winter - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

CPSC 601.72 and 599.30 Foundations of Multi-Agent Systems Winter 2003 Jörg Denzinger ICT 752 denzinge@cpsc.ucalgary.ca http://www.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~denzinge/

1. Introduction 1.1. Organization n Lectures (planned): l 50-60 min presentation by instructor (questions are encouraged!) l Rest: discussions on topic related to lecture F intended to deepen understanding n Assignments: l Midterm report on a cooperation concept from literature l Team project: write a team of agents that work together rescuing people buried under rubble after a disaster struck a city (simulation) CPSC 601 Multi-Agent Systems Jörg Denzinger

Determining your grade Individual component: n Midterm paper 20% n Oral exam 30% Team component n Implemented multi-agent system 30% n Report about system 20% If the individual component gives me doubt about the contribution of a student to the team, his/her grades for the team will be lowered! CPSC 601 Multi-Agent Systems Jörg Denzinger

More Information n Course webside: http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~denzinge/ courses/cs601-winter2003.html n Internet n Recommended papers n Talk to me, ask questions, send me email. CPSC 601 Multi-Agent Systems Jörg Denzinger

1.2 Motivation Robo-Cup Blackboard Avatar Vickrey auction Intentions Desire Cooperation Commitment Competition Belief Teamwork ? Contract-net negotiations Market mechanisms CPSC 601 Multi-Agent Systems Jörg Denzinger

MAS and related areas (in Computer Science) n Artificial Intelligence l Planning l Learning l Knowledge representation / logic n Distributed Systems l Libraries l Communication concepts n Efficient Algorithms n Robotic n (graphical) user interfaces CPSC 601 Multi-Agent Systems Jörg Denzinger

MAS and related areas (outside Computer Science) n Business Science / organizational theory / market studies n Game theory n Psychology n Sociology n Arts n Soccer n ... CPSC 601 Multi-Agent Systems Jörg Denzinger

Goals of MAS (I) In general: higher efficiency, faster answers, better solutions Especially: Synergy (the whole is more than the sum of its parts) Additional goals: n Adequately modeling of given distributions (functional, spatial, etc.) n Improving adaptability, extendability, reliability of systems ( F software engineering) CPSC 601 Multi-Agent Systems Jörg Denzinger

Goals of MAS (II) n Easy integration of existing systems, achieving open systems ( F software engineering) n More cost efficiency by specialization and distribution of tasks n More security and safety by autonomy and isolation n Usage of computer networks for AI applications n Simulating human approach to hard tasks: F computer (program) as colleague or part of a colleague CPSC 601 Multi-Agent Systems Jörg Denzinger

Basic problems (I) n Modeling agents l degree of autonomy l degree of willingness to collaborate l degree of intelligence l complexity n Construction of a community (society, organization) of agents l communication l control CPSC 601 Multi-Agent Systems Jörg Denzinger

Basic problems (II) l different roles l division and assignment of tasks l distribution/assignment of resources n Utilizing a community of agents l environment l constraints/conditions to keep fulfilled l efficiency l reuse of components CPSC 601 Multi-Agent Systems Jörg Denzinger

Solution approaches (I) n Adaptation of human forms of organization l political structures l organization of business companies l groups in society n Negotiation concepts for solving conflicts l detection of conflicts l determining scope of conflicts l protocol for solution n Game theoretical concepts, for example utility (payoff) matrixes CPSC 601 Multi-Agent Systems Jörg Denzinger

Solution approaches (II) n Knowledge representation techniques F standards for information exchange, like FIPA initiative or KIF n Different concepts for modeling agents, for example modal logics, state automata, rule based modeling,… n Tools for realizing MAS l MAS languages l Test beds, like OLEMAS and ARES l Groupware n ... CPSC 601 Multi-Agent Systems Jörg Denzinger

(Intended) Structure of the course (I) 1. Introduction 1. Organization 2. Motivation 3. A little history 2. Single-agent systems 1. Formal definitions and properties 2. Modeling of agents 3. Multi-agent systems 1. Formal definitions and properties CPSC 601 Multi-Agent Systems Jörg Denzinger

(Intended) Structure of the course (II) 3. 2. Interaction and cooperation concepts 3. Competitive agent environments 4. Learning in MAS 1. Learning in general 2. From single-agent to multi-agent learning 3. Examples 5. Applications of MAS 1. MAS in logistics: the MARS system 2. MAS for information management: ILTIS CPSC 601 Multi-Agent Systems Jörg Denzinger

1.3. A little history of MAS 1975 Hearsay-II, Blackboard systems (Erman, Lesser) Beings: knowledge as interacting experts (Lenat) 1977 Actor model, message passing (Hewitt) 1980 First workshop on Distributed AI, MIT Contract-net protocol, negotiations as cooperation concept (Smith) 1981 IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics special issue on DAI: Organizational View on Distributed Systems (Fox) The Scientific Community Metaphor (Kornfeld, Hewitt) CPSC 601 Multi-Agent Systems Jörg Denzinger

1981 Functionally accurate cooperative distributed systems (Lesser, Corkill) 1982 Synchronization of plans for agents (Rosenschein) 1983 Open Systems (Hewitt, de Jong) 1984 Modeling of Beliefs, Desires and Intentions (Levesque) Actions in plans for multi-agent systems (Georgeff) 1985 Pursuit Game as testbed (Benda, Jadannathan, Dodhiawala) 1986 Cooperation without Communication, Utilizing game theory (Rosenschein) Classification dimensions of DAI approaches (Sridharan, ed.) CPSC 601 Multi-Agent Systems Jörg Denzinger

1989 First MAAMAW, Cambridge Reinforcement Learning (Watkins) 1990 First MACC Agent-oriented programming (Shoham) Learning in multi-agent systems (Sian) User agents, personal assistant (Hammainen et al.) (Pan, Tenenbaum) 1991 Knowledge Interchange Format (KIF) (Interlingua Working Group) Teamwork concept (Denzinger) 1993 Founding Workshop of German DAI group, Saarbrücken 1994 Softbots (Etzioni, Weld) CPSC 601 Multi-Agent Systems Jörg Denzinger

1995 First ICMAS, San Francisco 1996 First RoboCup, Kyoto Founding of FIPA-Initiative 1997 First Autonomous Agents conference 1998 Agents’ World, Paris Start of the AgentLink program of EU 2001 First RoboCupRescue competition 2002 AAMAS in Italy CPSC 601 Multi-Agent Systems Jörg Denzinger