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A Survey of Environments and Mechanisms for Human-Human Stigmergy

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Environments for Multi-Agent Systems II (E4MAS 2005)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 3830))

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Abstract

Stigmergy (the coordination of agents through signs they make and sense in a shared environment) was originally articulated in the study of social insects. Its basic processes are much simpler than those usually used to model human-level cognition. Thus it is an attractive way to coordinate agents in engineered environments such as robotics or information processing. Stigmergic coordination is not limited to insects. Humans regularly use environmentally-mediated signals to coordinate their activities. This paper develops a schema for analyzing stigmergy among humans, discusses examples (some using a computational environment and others antedating digital computation), and suggests how the use of such mechanisms may be extended.

Copyright © Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada as Represented by the Minister of National Defence (2005). This copyrighted work has been created for Defence Research and Development Canada, an agency within the Canadian Department of National Defence.

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  1. Altarum Institute, 3520 Green Court, Suite 300, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, 48105

    H. Van Dyke Parunak

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  1. DistriNet Labs, K.U. Leuven, Belgium

    Danny Weyns

  2. NewVectors, 3520 Green Court, Suite 250, 48105, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    H. Van Dyke Parunak

  3. MODECO-CReSTIC, Université de Reims, B.P. 1035, 51687, Reims, France

    Fabien Michel

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Van Dyke Parunak, H. (2006). A Survey of Environments and Mechanisms for Human-Human Stigmergy. In: Weyns, D., Van Dyke Parunak, H., Michel, F. (eds) Environments for Multi-Agent Systems II. E4MAS 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 3830. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11678809_10

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