MULTISTEP AND MODIFIED INTEGRATION METHODS FOR THE SIMULATION OF POWER SYSTEM DYNAMICS

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Asynchronous teams : cooperation schemes for autonomous, computer-based agents

Abstract: "An asynchronous team (A-Team) is a strongly cyclic network of autonomous agents (workers) and memories (workplaces). Results (trial solutions to computational problems) circulate continually through this network. Agents work in parallel and cooperate by modifying one another's results. We have accumulated a good deal of experience in making the circulating results converge to better solutions of optimization and constraint satisfaction problems than the agents can find when working independently. This paper does three things. First, it distills our experiences with A-Teams into a protocol for designing them. Second, it points out that a sufficient condition for the circulating results to converge is that the skills of the agents that construct new results be complementary to the skills of the agents that destroy old results. Third, it argues that this complemantarity [sic] is relatively easy to achieve. The practical implications are: a) the quality of solutions obtained by any problem-solving-algorithm, even the best one available, can invariably be improved by combining it with other available algorithms into an A-Team, b) the quality of solutions obtained by any A-Team can invariably be improved by expanding its size, and C) expansions are relatively easy to make.

Collaboration Rules for Autonomous Software Agents

Is effective collaboration possible among autonomous software agents that are distributed over a network of computers? Both empirical evidence and theory suggest that there are simple rules for designing problem-solving organizations in which collaboration among such agents is automatic and scale-effective (adding agents tends to improve solution-quality; adding computers tends to improve solution-speed). This paper develops some of these rules for off-line problems, and argues that the rules can be extended for the on-line (real-time) control of distributed systems, such as electric power networks. Keywords: autonomous agents, collaboration, multi-agent systems, organizations. 1. INTRODUCTION This paper deals with the skills that unsupervised (autonomous) software agents must have if they are to collaborate effectively. This section explains the terminology that will be used, formulates the collaboration problem and outlines an approach to its resolution. 1.1. Terminology Let a "s..

Autonomous Cyber Agents: Rules For Collaboration

A cyber agent is any program, machine or person engaged in computer-enabled work. Thus, cyber agents can vary considerably in complexity and intelligence. Can they, despite their variety, be organized to collaborate effectively ? Both empirical evidence and theory suggest that they can. Moreover, there seem to be simple rules for designing problem-solving organizations in which collaboration among cyber agents is automatic and scale-effective (adding agents tends to improve solution-quality; adding computers tends to improve solution-speed). This paper develops some of these rules. 1. INTRODUCTION Computer networks make it possible to interconnect and therefore, organize, large numbers of distributed cyber agents, varying in type from simple programs to skilled humans. Our goal is to develop a class of organizations in which such agents can collaborate easily and effectively. More specifically, our goal is to develop methods for routinely solving arbitrary instances of the following ..