91,631 research outputs found

    Deliberate evolution in multi-agent systems

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    This paper presents an architecture for an agent capable of deliberation about the creation of new agents, and of actually creating a new agent in the multi-agent system, on the basis of this deliberation. After its creation the new agent participates fully in the running multi-agent system. The agent architecture is based on an existing generic agent model, and includes explicit formal conceptual representations of both structures of agents and (behavioural) properties of agents that can be used as requirements. Moreover, to support the deliberation process the agent has explicit knowledge of relations between structure and properties of agents. To actually create a new agent at run-time on the basis of the results of deliberation, the agent executes a creation action in the material world, which leads to a world state update to include the new agent, after which the new agent functions within the multi-agent system. This approach enables the design of evolution processes in societies of agents for which the evolution is not a merely material process which takes place in isolation from the mental worlds of the agents, but allows for interaction between mental and material processes. A combined mind-matter approach results in which the agents in a society can deliberatively influence the direction of the evolution, comparable to the potential offered by genetic engineering. The architecture has been designed using the compositional development method DESIRE, and has been tested in a prototype implementation. It is discussed how the approach introduced here can be used as a basis for automatic evolution of multi-agent systems for Electronic Commerce

    An OSA-CBM Multi-Agent Vehicle Health Management Architecture for Self-Health Awareness

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    Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) systems on modern aircraft or autonomous unmanned vehicles should provide diagnostic and prognostic capabilities with lower support costs and amount of data traffic. When mission objectives cannot be reached for the control system since unanticipated operating conditions exists, namely a failure, the mission plan must be revised or altered according to the health monitoring system assessment. Representation of the system health knowledge must facilitate interaction with the control system to compensate for subsystem degradation. Several generic architectures have been described for the implementation of health monitoring systems and their integration with the control system. In particular, the Open System Architecture - Condition-Based Maintenance (OSA-CBM) approach is considered in this work as initial point, and it is evolved in the sense of self-health awareness, by defining an appropriated multi-agent smart health management architecture based on smart device models, communication agents and a distributed control system. A case study about its application on fuel-cells as auxiliary power generator will demonstrate the integration.Postprint (published version

    From SMART to agent systems development

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    In order for agent-oriented software engineering to prove effective it must use principled notions of agents and enabling specification and reasoning, while still considering routes to practical implementation. This paper deals with the issue of individual agent specification and construction, departing from the conceptual basis provided by the SMART agent framework. SMART offers a descriptive specification of an agent architecture but omits consideration of issues relating to construction and control. In response, we introduce two new views to complement SMART: a behavioural specification and a structural specification which, together, determine the components that make up an agent, and how they operate. In this way, we move from abstract agent system specification to practical implementation. These three aspects are combined to create an agent construction model, actSMART, which is then used to define the AgentSpeak(L) architecture in order to illustrate the application of actSMART

    Approaches for Future Internet architecture design and Quality of Experience (QoE) Control

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    Researching a Future Internet capable of overcoming the current Internet limitations is a strategic investment. In this respect, this paper presents some concepts that can contribute to provide some guidelines to overcome the above-mentioned limitations. In the authors' vision, a key Future Internet target is to allow applications to transparently, efficiently and flexibly exploit the available network resources with the aim to match the users' expectations. Such expectations could be expressed in terms of a properly defined Quality of Experience (QoE). In this respect, this paper provides some approaches for coping with the QoE provision problem

    An Approach to Agent-Based Service Composition and Its Application to Mobile

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    This paper describes an architecture model for multiagent systems that was developed in the European project LEAP (Lightweight Extensible Agent Platform). Its main feature is a set of generic services that are implemented independently of the agents and can be installed into the agents by the application developer in a flexible way. Moreover, two applications using this architecture model are described that were also developed within the LEAP project. The application domain is the support of mobile, virtual teams for the German automobile club ADAC and for British Telecommunications

    Multi Site Coordination using a Multi-Agent System

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    A new approach of coordination of decisions in a multi site system is proposed. It is based this approach on a multi-agent concept and on the principle of distributed network of enterprises. For this purpose, each enterprise is defined as autonomous and performs simultaneously at the local and global levels. The basic component of our approach is a so-called Virtual Enterprise Node (VEN), where the enterprise network is represented as a set of tiers (like in a product breakdown structure). Within the network, each partner constitutes a VEN, which is in contact with several customers and suppliers. Exchanges between the VENs ensure the autonomy of decision, and guarantiee the consistency of information and material flows. Only two complementary VEN agents are necessary: one for external interactions, the Negotiator Agent (NA) and one for the planning of internal decisions, the Planner Agent (PA). If supply problems occur in the network, two other agents are defined: the Tier Negotiator Agent (TNA) working at the tier level only and the Supply Chain Mediator Agent (SCMA) working at the level of the enterprise network. These two agents are only active when the perturbation occurs. Otherwise, the VENs process the flow of information alone. With this new approach, managing enterprise network becomes much more transparent and looks like managing a simple enterprise in the network. The use of a Multi-Agent System (MAS) allows physical distribution of the decisional system, and procures a heterarchical organization structure with a decentralized control that guaranties the autonomy of each entity and the flexibility of the network

    A new model for solution of complex distributed constrained problems

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    In this paper we describe an original computational model for solving different types of Distributed Constraint Satisfaction Problems (DCSP). The proposed model is called Controller-Agents for Constraints Solving (CACS). This model is intended to be used which is an emerged field from the integration between two paradigms of different nature: Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) and the Constraint Satisfaction Problem paradigm (CSP) where all constraints are treated in central manner as a black-box. This model allows grouping constraints to form a subset that will be treated together as a local problem inside the controller. Using this model allows also handling non-binary constraints easily and directly so that no translating of constraints into binary ones is needed. This paper presents the implementation outlines of a prototype of DCSP solver, its usage methodology and overview of the CACS application for timetabling problems
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