An Analysis Architecture for Communications in Multi-agent Systems

Evaluation tools are significant from the Agent Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) point of view. Defective designs of communications in Multi-agent Systems (MAS) may overload one or several agents, causing a bullying effect on them. Bullying communications have avoidable consequences, as high response times and low quality of service (QoS). Architectures that perform evaluation functionality must include features to measure the bullying activity and QoS, but it is also recommendable that they have reusability and scalability features. Evaluation tools with these features can be applied to a wide range of MAS, while minimizing designer’s effort. This work describes the design of an architecture for communication analysis, and its evolution to a modular version, that can be applied to different types of MAS. Experimentation of both versions shows differences between its executions

Analysis of Bullying in Cooperative Multi-agent Systems’ Communications

Cooperative Multi-agent Systems frameworks do not include modules to test communications yet. The proposed framework incorporates robust analysis tools using IDKAnalysis2.0 to evaluate bullying effect in communications. The present work is based on ICARO-T. This platform follows the Adaptive Multi-agent Systems paradigm. Experimentation with ICARO-T includes two deployments: the equitative and the authoritative. Results confirm the usefulness of the analysis tools when exporting to Cooperative Multi-agent Systems that use different configurations. Besides, ICARO-T is provided with new functionality by a set of tools for communication analysis

TABSAOND: A technique for developing agent-based simulation apps and online tools with nondeterministic decisions

Agent-based simulators (ABSs) have successfully allowed practitioners to estimate the outcomes of certain input circumstances in several domains. Although some techniques and processes provide hints about the construction of these systems, some aspects have not been discussed yet in the literature. In this context, the current approach presents a technique for developing ABSs. Its focus is to guide practitioners in designing and implementing the decision-making processes of agents in nondeterministic scenarios. As an additional technological innovation, the ABSs are deployed as both mobile apps and online tools. This work illustrates the current approach with two case studies in the fields of (a) health and welfare and (b) tourism. These case studies have also been developed with the most similar technique from the literature for comparing both techniques. The presented technique improved the simulated outcomes in terms of their similarity with the real ones. The obtained ABSs were more efficient and reliable for large amounts of agents (e.g. 10,000 – 400,000 agents). The development time was lower. Both the framework and the implementation of a case study are freely distributed as open-source to facilitate the reproducibility of the experiments and to assist practitioners in applying the current approach

Understanding how the Army\u27s Informal Leader Bonds Formal Leadership and the Complex Environment

Bullying and toxic leadership in the U. S. Army disrupt bonding processes between leaders and subordinates, which may jeopardize military operations, threaten resiliency initiatives, inhibit leader development, and stifle innovation. Little research, however, has looked at the role of informal leaders who operate outside the formal power structure in military environments. Using social exchange theory as the foundation, the purpose of this case study was to explore the activities of informal leaders who mediated the normal and disrupted leadership bonding processes in an Illinois Army National Guard Infantry Brigade. The research questions explored the informal leaders\u27 influence and behaviors to gain a greater understanding of the bonding processes. A maximum variation purposeful sampling was used to select 25 informal leaders from 8 company size units in an Illinois Army National Guard Infantry Brigade. Publicly available archival data were also considered. All data were coded inductively and then subjected to Braun and Clark\u27s thematic analysis procedure, revealing the perception that informal leaders improved bonding between soldiers and leaders and reduced stress associated with military service. The implications for positive social change include recommendations to the Illinois National Guard to provide support for using informal leaders as a mechanism to promote more cohesive relationships between leaders and subordinates and to explore the use of informal leadership to reduce stress