Multi-agent system

In computer science, a multi-agent system (MAS) is a system composed of several agents, capable of mutual interaction. The interaction can be in the form of message passing or producing changes in their common environment (see stigmergy).

Related Topics:
Computer science - Agents - Stigmergy

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The exact nature of the agents is a matter of some controversy. They are sometimes claimed to be autonomous. For example a household floor cleaning robot can be autonomous in that it is dependent only on a human operator to start it up. On the other hand, in practice, all agents are under active human supervision. Furthermore, the more important the activities of the agent are to humans, the more supervision that they receive. In fact, autonomy is seldom desired. Instead interdependent systems are needed.

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MAS can be claimed to include human agents as well. Human organizations and society in general can be considered an example of a multi-agent system.

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Multi-agent systems can manifest self-organization and complex behaviors even when the individual strategies of all their agents are simple.

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Topics of research in MAS include:

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• beliefs, desires, and intentions (BDI),
• cooperation and coordination,
• communication,
• distributed problem solving,
• multi-agent learning.
• scientific communities

To share knowledge agents can use Knowledge Query Manipulation Language - KQML.

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