AgEx: A Financial Market Simulation Tool for Software Agents

Abstract. Many researchers in the software agent field use the financial domain as a test bed to develop adaptation, cooperation and learning skills of software agents. However, there are no open source financial market simulation tools available, that are able to provide a suitable environment for agents with real information about assets and order execution service. In order to address such demand, this paper proposes an open source financial market simulation tool, called AgEx. This tool allows traders launched from distinct computers to act in the same market. The communication among agents is performed through FIPA ACL and uses a market ontology created specifically to be used for trader agents. We implemented several traders using AgEx and performed many simulations using data from real markets. The achieved results allowed to test and assess comparatively trader's performance against each other in terms of risk and return. We verified that the effort to implement and test trader agents was significantly diminished by the use of AgEx. Furthermore, such results indicated new directions in trader strategy design

Increasing the expressiveness for virtual agents. Autonomous generation of speech and gesture for spatial description tasks

Bergmann K, Kopp S. Increasing the expressiveness for virtual agents. Autonomous generation of speech and gesture for spatial description tasks. In: Decker KS, Sichman JS, Sierra C, Castelfranchi C, eds. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2009). Ann Arbor, MI: IFAAMAS; 2009: 361-368.Embodied conversational agents are required to be able to express themselves convincingly and autonomously. Based on an empirial study on spatial descriptions of landmarks in direction-giving, we present a model that allows virtual agents to automatically generate, i.e., select the content and derive the form of coordinated language and iconic gestures. Our model simulates the interplay between these two modes of expressiveness on two levels. First, two kinds of knowledge representation (propositional and imagistic) are utilized to capture the modality-specific contents and processes of content planning. Second, specific planners are integrated to carry out the formulation of concrete verbal and gestural behavior. A probabilistic approach to gesture formulation is presented that incorporates multiple contextual factors as well as idiosyncratic patterns in the mapping of visuo-spatial referent properties onto gesture morphology. Results from a prototype implementation are described

Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics): Preface

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Developing organised multi-agent systems using the moise+ model: Programming issues at the system and agent levels

Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) has evolved towards the specification of global constraints that heterogeneous and autonomous agents are supposed to follow when concerning open systems. A subset of these constraints is known as the MAS organisation. This article describes a set of computational tools that supports the development and the programming of such systems. At the system level, it is provided a middleware which ensures that all agents will follow the organisational constraints. At the agent level, the AgentSpeak language is extended, using Jason features, so that the agents can perceive and act upon the organisation they belong

Preface

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