Convergence and Knowledge Processing in Multi-Agent Systems

ISBN-13: 9781849968218 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 143 str.

Springer

Opis

Agent systems are being used to model complex systems like societies, markets and biological systems. In this book we investigate issues of agent systems related to convergence and interactivity using techniques from agent based modelling to simulate complex systems, and demonstrate that interactivity/exchange and convergence in multi-agent systems are issues that are significantly interrelated. Topic and features: - Introduces the state of the art in multi-agent systems, with an emphasis on agent-based computational economics. - Sheds light on the fundamental concepts behind the stability of multi-agent systems. - Investigates knowledge exchange among agents, the rationale behind it and its effects on the ecosystem. - Explores how information provided through interaction with the system can be used to optimise its performance. - Describes a pricing strategy for a realistic large-scale distributed system. This book supplies a comprehensive resource and will be invaluable reading for researchers and postgraduates studying this topic.

Spis treści

1. Introduction 1.1 Background to the research 1.2 Approach 1.3 Contributions 1.4 Reader's guide to the book 2. Research Issues 2.1 Multi-Agent Systems 2.2 Agent-Based Modelling 2.3 An Ecosystem Perspective of Multi-Agent Systems 2.4 Convergence Issues 2.5 Interaction and Knowledge Exchange 3. Stability of Multi-Agent Systems 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Background 3.3 Stability in Games 3.4 Experiments 3.5 Conclusion 4. The Emergence of Knowledge Exchange 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Digital Business Ecosystems 4.3 Background 4.4 An agent-based model of the DBE 4.5 Analysis of the model 4.6 Concluding remarks 5. Collaborative Query Expansion 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Term Value 5.3 Implementation 5.4 Evaluation 5.5 Introducing User Collaboration for Query Expansion 5.6 Limitations and Future Work 5.7 Conclusion 6. Micro-economic Control of Distributed Intelligent Personal Assistants 6.1 Stable Strategies 6.2 Network of Intelligent Personal Assistants 6.3 Finding a Stable Strategy 6.4 Conclusion 7. Conclusions and Future Work 7.1 Contributions 7.2 Future Directions 7.3 Concluding Remarks Appendices A. The EEII project B. Statistical Analysis C. Methodology: Evolutionary Algorithms References

Blurb

Multi-agent systems are complex systems comprised of multiple intelligent agents that act either independently or in cooperation with one another. Agent-based modelling is a method for studying complex systems like economies, societies, ecologies etc. Due to their complexity, very often mathematical analysis is limited in its ability to analyse such systems. In this case, agent-based modelling offers a practical, constructive method of analysis.

The objective of this book is to shed light on some emergent properties of multi-agent systems. The authors focus their investigation on the effect of knowledge exchange on the convergence of complex, multi-agent systems.