Abstract
This paper presents a formal framework within which autonomous agents can dynamically select and apply different mechanisms to coordinate their interactions with one another. Agents use the task attributes and environmental conditions to evaluate which mechanism maximises their expected utility. Different agent types can be characterised by their willingness to cooperate and the relative value they place on short- vs long-term rewards. Our results demonstrate the viability of empowering agents in this way and show the quantitative benefits that agents accrue from being given the flexibility to control how they coordinate.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
K. Barber, D. Han, and T. Liu. Coordinating distributed decision making using reusable interaction specifications. In Proc 3rd Pacific Rim Wsp. on Multi-Agents, pages 1–15, Australia, 2000.
R. A. Bourne, C. B. Excelente-Toledo, and N. R. Jennings. Run-time selection of coordination mechanisms in multi-agent systems. In Proc. 14th European Conf. on AI, pages 348–352, Berlin, Germany, 2000.
C. Boutilier. Sequential optimality and coordination in multiagent systems. In Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-99), pages 478–485, Menlo Park, CA, 1999.
E. Durfee and V. Lesser. Partial global planning. IEEE Trans. on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 21(5):1167–1183, 1991.
E. H. Durfee. Practically coordinating. AI Magazine, 20(1):99–116, 1999.
C. B. Excelente-Toledo, R. A. Bourne, and N. R. Jennings. Reasoning about commitments and penalties for coordination between autonomous agents. In Proceedings of 5th International Conference on Autonomous Agents (Agents 2001), pages 131–138, 2001.
J. Filar. Competitive Markov decision processes. Springer, New York, 1997.
A. Haddadi. Communication and cooperation in agent systems. Springer Verlag, 1996.
N. R. Jennings. Commitments and conventions. The Knowledge Engineering Review, 8(3):223–250, 1993.
Y. Shoham and M. Tennenholtz. On the synthesis of useful social laws for artificial agent societies. In Proc. of the 10th Nat. Conf. on AI, San Diego, CA, 1992.
R. G. Smith and R. Davis. Frameworks for cooperation in distributed problem solving. IEEE Trans. on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 11(1):61–70, 1980.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Bourne, R.A., Shoop, K., Jennings, N.R. (2001). Dynamic Evaluation of Coordination Mechanisms for Autonomous Agents. In: Brazdil, P., Jorge, A. (eds) Progress in Artificial Intelligence. EPIA 2001. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 2258. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45329-6_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45329-6_18
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-43030-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45329-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive