Incorporating social practices in BDI agent systems

When agents interact with humans, either through embodied agents or because they are embedded in a robot, it would be easy if they could use fixed interaction protocols as they do with other agents. However, people do not keep fixed protocols in their day-to-day interactions and the environments are often dynamic, making it impossible to use fixed protocols. Deliberating about interactions from fundamentals is not very scalable either, because in that case all possible reactions of a user have to be considered in the plans. In this paper we argue that social practices can be used as an inspiration for designing flexible and scalable interaction mechanisms that are also robust. However, using social practices requires extending the traditional BDI deliberation cycle to monitor landmark states and perform expected actions by leveraging existing plans. We define and implement this mechanism in Jason using a periodically run meta-deliberation plan, supported by a metainterpreter, and illustrate its use in a realistic scenario.Comment: An extended abstract of this paper has been accepted for the Eighteenth International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), 201

An Abstract Formal Basis for Digital Crowds

Crowdsourcing, together with its related approaches, has become very popular in recent years. All crowdsourcing processes involve the participation of a digital crowd, a large number of people that access a single Internet platform or shared service. In this paper we explore the possibility of applying formal methods, typically used for the verification of software and hardware systems, in analysing the behaviour of a digital crowd. More precisely, we provide a formal description language for specifying digital crowds. We represent digital crowds in which the agents do not directly communicate with each other. We further show how this specification can provide the basis for sophisticated formal methods, in particular formal verification.Comment: 32 pages, 4 figure

Integration of social values in a multi-agent platform running in a supercomputer

Agent-based modelling is one of the most suitable ways to simulate and analyse complex problems and scenarios, especially those involving social interactions. Multi-agent systems, consisting of multiple agents in a simulation environment, are widely used to understand emergent behaviour in various fields such as sociology, economics and policy. However, existing multi-agent platforms often face challenges in terms of scalability and reasoning capacity. Some platforms can scale well in terms of computation, but lack sophisticated reasoning mechanisms. On the other hand, some platforms employ complex reasoning systems, but this can compromise their scalability. In this work, we have extended an existing platform developed at UPC that enables scalable, parallel HTN planning for complex agents. Our main goal has been to improve the analysis of social relationships between agents by incorporating moral values. Building on previous work done by David Marín on the implementation of the platform, we have made extensions and modifications both formally and in the implementation. We have formalised the additions to the system model and provided an updated implementation. Finally, we have presented a complex example scenario that demonstrates all the additions we have made. This scenario allows us to show how agents' preferences and moral values influence their decisions and actions in a simulated environment. Through this work, we have sought to improve the existing platform and fulfil the spirit and purpose of the platform

Accountability for Practical Reasoning Agents

Postprin

A Review of Platforms for the Development of Agent Systems

Agent-based computing is an active field of research with the goal of building autonomous software of hardware entities. This task is often facilitated by the use of dedicated, specialized frameworks. For almost thirty years, many such agent platforms have been developed. Meanwhile, some of them have been abandoned, others continue their development and new platforms are released. This paper presents a up-to-date review of the existing agent platforms and also a historical perspective of this domain. It aims to serve as a reference point for people interested in developing agent systems. This work details the main characteristics of the included agent platforms, together with links to specific projects where they have been used. It distinguishes between the active platforms and those no longer under development or with unclear status. It also classifies the agent platforms as general purpose ones, free or commercial, and specialized ones, which can be used for particular types of applications.Comment: 40 pages, 2 figures, 9 tables, 83 reference

Multi Agent Systems in Logistics: A Literature and State-of-the-art Review

Based on a literature survey, we aim to answer our main question: “How should we plan and execute logistics in supply chains that aim to meet today’s requirements, and how can we support such planning and execution using IT?†Today’s requirements in supply chains include inter-organizational collaboration and more responsive and tailored supply to meet specific demand. Enterprise systems fall short in meeting these requirements The focus of planning and execution systems should move towards an inter-enterprise and event-driven mode. Inter-organizational systems may support planning going from supporting information exchange and henceforth enable synchronized planning within the organizations towards the capability to do network planning based on available information throughout the network. We provide a framework for planning systems, constituting a rich landscape of possible configurations, where the centralized and fully decentralized approaches are two extremes. We define and discuss agent based systems and in particular multi agent systems (MAS). We emphasize the issue of the role of MAS coordination architectures, and then explain that transportation is, next to production, an important domain in which MAS can and actually are applied. However, implementation is not widespread and some implementation issues are explored. In this manner, we conclude that planning problems in transportation have characteristics that comply with the specific capabilities of agent systems. In particular, these systems are capable to deal with inter-organizational and event-driven planning settings, hence meeting today’s requirements in supply chain planning and execution.supply chain;MAS;multi agent systems

ABC-EBDI: A cognitive-affective framework to support the modeling of believable intelligent agents.

El Grupo de Investigación de Interfaces Avanzadas (AffectiveLab), es un grupo reconocido por el Gobierno de Aragón (T60-20R) cuya actividad se enmarca en el área de la Interacción Humano-Computadora (IHC). Su actividad investigadora se ha centrado, en los últimos años, en cuatro temas principales: interacción natural, informática afectiva, accesibilidad e interfaces basadas en agentes inteligentes, siendo esta última en la que se enmarca esta tesis doctoral. Más concretamente, la realización de esta tesis doctoral se enmarca dentro de los proyectos de investigación nacionales JUGUEMOS (TIN2015-67149-C3-1R) y PERGAMEX (RTI2018-096986-B-C31). Una de sus líneas de investigación se centra en el desarrollo de arquitecturas cognitivo-afectivas para apoyar el modelado afectivo de los agentes inteligentes. El AffectiveLab tiene una sólida experiencia en el uso de agentes de interfaz incorporados que exhiben expresiones afectivas corporales y faciales (Baldassarri et al., 2008). En los últimos años, se han centrado en el modelado del comportamiento de los agentes inteligentes (Pérez et al., 2017).La definición de agente inteligente es un tema controvertido, pero se puede decir que es una entidad autónoma que recibe información dinámica del entorno a través de sensores y actúa sobre el medio ambiente a través de actuadores, mostrando un comportamiento dirigido a un objetivo (Russell et al., 2003). El modelado de los procesos cognitivos en los agentes inteligentes se basa en diferentes teorías (Moore, 1980; Newell, 1994; Bratman, 1987) que explican, desde diferentes puntos de vista, el funcionamiento de la mente humana. Los agentes inteligentes implementados sobre la base de una teoría cognitiva se conocen como agentes cognitivos. Los más desarrollados son los que se basan en arquitecturas cognitivas, como Soar (Laird et al., 1987), ACT-R (Anderson, 1993) y BDI (Rao and Georgeff, 1995). Comparado con Soar y otras arquitecturas complejas, BDI se destaca por su simplicidad y versatilidad. BDI ofrece varias características que la hacen popular, como su capacidad para explicar el comportamiento del agente en cada momento, haciendo posible una interacción dinámica con el entorno. Debido a la creciente popularidad del marco BDI se ha utilizado para apoyar el modelado de agentes inteligentes (Larsen, 2019; (Cranefield and Dignum, 2019). En los últimos años, también han aparecido propuestas de BDI que integran aspectos afectivos. Los agentes inteligentes construidos en base a la arquitectura BDI que también incorporan capacidades afectivas, se conocen como agentes EBDI (Emotional BDI) y son el foco de esta tesis. El objetivo principal de esta tesis ha sido proponer un marco cognitivo-afectivo basado en el BDI que sustente el modelado cognitivo-afectivo de los agentes inteligentes. La finalidad es ser capaz de reproducir un comportamiento humano creíble en situaciones complejas donde el comportamiento humano es variado y bastante impredecible. El objetivo propuesto se ha logrado con éxito en los términos descritos a continuación:• Se ha elaborado un exhaustivo estado del arte relacionado con los modelos afectivos más utilizados para modelar los aspectos afectivos en los agentes inteligentes.• Se han estudiado las arquitecturas de BDI y las propuestas previas de EBDI. El estudio, que dio lugar a una publicación (Sánchez-López and Cerezo, 2019), permitió detectar las cuestiones abiertas en el área, y la necesidad de considerar todos los aspectos de la afectividad (emociones, estado de ánimo, personalidad) y su influencia en todas las etapas cognitivas. El marco resultante de este trabajo doctoral incluye también el modelado de la conducta y el comportamiento comunicativo, que no habían sido considerados hasta ahora en el modelado de los agentes inteligentes. Estos aspectos colocan al marco resultante entre EBDI los más avanzados de la literatura. • Se ha diseñado e implementado un marco basado en el BDI para soportar el modelado cognitivo, afectivo y conductual de los agentes inteligentes, denominado ABC-EBDI (Sanchez et al., 2020) (Sánchez et al., 2019). Se trata de la primera aplicación de un modelo psicológico muy conocido, el modelo ABC de Ellis, a la simulación de agentes inteligentes humanos realistas. Esta aplicación implica:o La ampliación del concepto de creencias. En el marco se consideran tres tipos de creencias: creencias básicas, creencias de contexto y comportamientos operantes. Las creencias básicas representan la información general que el agente tiene sobre sí mismo y el entorno. Las conductas operantes permiten modelar la conducta reactiva del agente a través de las conductas aprendidas. Las creencias de contexto, que se representan en forma de cogniciones frías y calientes, se procesan para clasificarlas en creencias irracionales y racionales siguiendo las ideas de Ellis. Es la consideración de creencias irracionales/racionales porque abre la puerta a la simulación de reacciones humanas realistas.o La posibilidad de gestionar de forma unificada las consecuencias de los acontecimientos en términos de consecuencias afectivas y de comportamiento (conducta). Las creencias de contexto racionales conducen a emociones funcionales y a una conducta adaptativa, mientras que las creencias de contexto irracionales conducen a emociones disfuncionales y a una conducta maladaptativa. Este carácter funcional/disfuncional de las emociones no se había utilizado nunca antes en el contexto del BDI. Además, el modelado conductual se ha ampliado con el modelado de estilos comunicativos, basado en el modelo Satir, tampoco aplicado previamente al modelado de agentes inteligentes. El modelo de Satir considera gestos corporales, expresiones faciales, voz, entonación y estructuras lingüísticas.• Se ha elegido un caso de uso, "I wish a had better news" para la aplicación del marco propuesto y se han realizado dos tipos de evaluaciones, por parte de expertos y de usuarios. La evaluación ha confirmado el gran potencial del marco propuesto para reproducir un comportamiento humano realista y creíble en situaciones complejas.<br /

Hofstede’s cultured negotiating agents

Tese de mestrado, Ciência Cognitiva, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Psicologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Faculdade de Letras, Faculdade de Medicina, 2011Hofstede and colleagues cultured negotiating agents simulation produced realistic behavior by incorporating Hofstede's dimensional model of culture in the agent's negotiation protocol and overall behavior. Given such a promising model to generate actual human-like behavior in artificial agents, and the lack of sound and well accepted replication methodologies, we tried to remake the original simulation and highlight the roadblocks encountered during the process. Along the way, we present the Hofstede‟s dimensional model of culture and its integration in the cultured agents social simulation. Some suggestions are made in order to avoid such obstacles. New results showed a relational equivalence.A simulação de Hofstede e colegas de agents culturais que negoceiam entre si produziu comportamentos realistas através da incorporação do modelo dimensional da cultura de Hofstede no protocolo de negociação dos agentes, e no seu comportamento em geral. Dado o potencial que tal modelo apresenta para gerar comportamentos humanos verdadeiros em agentes artificiais, assim como a falta de metodologias de replicação padrão e sólidas, tentámos replicar a simulação original e ilustrámos as dificuldades com que nos deparámos durante o processo. Apresentamos também o modelo dimensional da cultura de Hofstede e a sua integração numa simulação social de agentes culturais. Hofstede e colaboradores (2010a) definem cultura como um fenómeno que é específico de um grupo e não de um indivíduo; sistemas partilhados de valores, transmitidos desde tenra idade através da educação e do exemplo; estável ao longo de várias gerações apesar de alterações substantivas no ambiente e na tecnologia. Este modelo dimensional da cultura tem-se revelado fiável a nível de replicações e validações ao longo do tempo. Fazemos também algumas sugestões no sentido de evitar tais dificuldades na re-engenharia necessária à replicação do trabalho de Hostede, tais como usar práticas de Engenharia de Software e publicar resultados das simulações detalhados e de fácil acesso. Os novos resultados, da replicação, mostram uma equivalência relacional (qualitativa) em relação aos resultados originais e fornecem um bom pronúncio quanto ao potencial deste modelo cultural ser aplicado em vários cenários que não apenas o de comércio

Modelling without queues: adapting discrete-event simulation for service operations

Discrete-event simulation (DES), which has largely grown out of modelling manufacturing systems, has increasingly been applied in the service sector. The approach, however, is not always appropriate for modelling service operations. In particular, it cannot help with detailed decisions about the layout of service operations in which the customers are present such as retail outlets and airports. An adapted DES approach is proposed for modelling such systems and the approach is demonstrated through a model of a coffee shop. A key innovation is that queues are not explicitly modelled. The benefit of the approach is that it simplifies the modelling of service systems in which the customers are present by reducing the number of components that need to be modelled. It can also aid decisions about the layout of a system. We ask whether the approach is in fact an agent-based simulation and identify ways in which the approach could be extended