Skip to main content

Designing for Planned Emergence in Multi-agent Systems

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Coordination, Organizations, Institutions, and Norms in Agent Systems X (COIN 2014)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 9372))

Abstract

We present an approach for designing organization-oriented multi-agent systems (MASs) to allow improvisation at run time when agents are not available to exactly match the original organizational design structure. Working with system components from an existing MAS organizational meta-model, OJAzzIC, the approach sets out five stages for the design process. We illustrate the design approach with an incident response scenario implemented in the Blocks World for Teams (BW4T) environment, and show how agents at runtime can improvise - for example they can adopt tasks even if those tasks do not precisely match a predefined role.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    room collapse is not implemented in the current system.

References

  1. Agüero, J., Rebollo, M., Carrascosa, C., Julián, V.: Developing virtual organizations using MDD. In: Proceedings of Workshop on Agreement Technologies (WAT 2009), pp. 130–141 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Aldewereld, H., Dignum, V., Jonker, C.M., van Riemsdijk, M.B.: Agreeing on role adoption in open organisations. KI-Künstliche Intelligenz 26(1), 37–45 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Beydoun, G., Low, G., Henderson-Sellers, B., Mouratidis, J.J.H., Gomez-Sanz, J., Gonzalez-Perez, C.: FAML: a generic metamodel for MAS development. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. 35(6), 841–863 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Boissier, O., Bordini, R., Hübner, J., Ricci, A.: Unravelling multi-agent-oriented programming. In: Shehory, O., Sturm, A. (eds.) Agent-Oriented Software Engineering, Springer-Verlag Heidelberg (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Corkill, D., Durfee, E., Lesser, V., Zafar, H., Zhang, C.: Organizationally Adept Agents. In: 12th International Workshop on Coordination. Organization, Institutions and Norms in Agent Systems (COIN@AAMAS 2011), pp. 15–30. Taipei, Taiwan May 2011

    Google Scholar 

  6. Corkill, D.D., Lesser, V.R.: The use of meta-level control for coordination in a distributed problem solving network. In: Bundy, A. (ed.) Proceedings of the 8th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 748–756. William Kaufmann (1983)

    Google Scholar 

  7. DeLoach, S.A.: OMACS: a framework for adaptive, complex systems. In: Dignum, V. (ed.) Multi-Agent Systems: Semantics and Dynamics of Organizational Models. IGI Global: Hershey, PA (2009) ISBN: 1-60566-256-9

    Google Scholar 

  8. DeLoach, S.A.: O-MaSE: an extensible methodology for multi-agent systems. In: Shehory, O., Sturm, A. (eds.) Agent-Oriented Software Engineering, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  9. DeLoach, S.A., Carlos, G.-O.J.: O-MaSE: a customizable approach to designing and building complex, adaptive multiagent systems. Int. J. Agent Oriented Softw. Eng. 4(3), 244–280 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Franco, M.R., Sichman, J.S.: Comparing and evaluating organizational models: a multi-agent programming contest case study. In: Pre-proceedings The 17th International Workshop on Coordination, Organisations, Institutions and Norms, AAMAS (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Grosz, B., Kraus, S.: The evolution of SharedPlans. In: Wooldridge, M., Rao, A. (eds.) Foundations of Rational Agency. Applied Logic Series, vol. 14, pp. 227–262. Springer, Netherlands (1999)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  12. Hendriks, K., Dix, J.: GOAL: a multi-agent programming language applied to an exploration game. In: Shehory, O., Sturm, A. (eds.) Agent-Oriented Software Engineering, pp. 235–258. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Jensen, A., Alderwereld, H., Dignum, V.: Dimensions of organizational coordination. In: Hindriks, K., de Weerdt, M., van Riemsdijk, B., Warnier, M. (eds.) Proceedings of the 25th Benelux Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 80–87 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Jiang, J., Dignum, V., Tan, Y.-H.: An agent based inter-organizational collaboration framework: OperA+. In: Proceedings of Web Intelligence/IAT Workshops, pp. 21–24 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Johnson, M., Jonker, C., van Riemsdijk, B., Feltovich, P.J., Bradshaw, J.M.: Joint activity testbed: blocks world for teams (BW4T). In: Aldewereld, H., Dignum, V., Picard, G. (eds.) ESAW 2009. LNCS, vol. 5881, pp. 254–256. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  16. Keogh, K., Sonenberg, L.: Adaptive Coordination in Distributed and Dynamic Agent Organizations. In: Cranefield, S., van Riemsdijk, M.B., Vázquez-Salceda, J., Noriega, P. (eds.) COIN 2011. LNCS, vol. 7254, pp. 38–57. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  17. Keogh, K., Sonenberg, L.: Coordination using social policies in dynamic agent organizations. In: Balke, T., Dignum, F., van Riemsdijk, M.B., Chopra, A.K. (eds.) COIN 2013. LNCS, vol. 8386, pp. 83–102. Springer, Heidelberg (2014)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  18. Miller, T., Lu, B., Sterling, L., Beydoun, G., Taveter, K.: Requirements elicitation and specification using the agent paradigm: the case study of an aircraft turnaround simulator. IEEE Trans. Software Eng. 40(10), 1007–1024 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Odell, J.J., Nodine, M., Levy, R.: A metamodel for agents, roles, and groups. In: Odell, J.J., Giorgini, P., Müller, J.P. (eds.) AOSE 2004. LNCS, vol. 3382, pp. 78–92. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  20. Pitt, J., Bourazeri, A., Nowak, A., Roszczynska-Kurasinska, M., Rychwalska, A., Rodriguez, I., Santiago, M., Sanchez, M.L., Florea, M., Sanduleac, M.: Transforming big data into collective awareness. Computer 46(6), 40–45 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Ramchurn, S., Farinelli, A., Macarthur, K., Jennings, N.: Decentralized coordination in robocup rescue. Comput. J. 53(9), 1447–1461 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Seidita, V., Cossentino, M., Hilaire, V., Gaud, N., Galland, S., Koukam, A., Gaglio, S.: The metamodel: a starting point for design processes construction. Int. J. Softw. Eng. Knowl. Eng. 20(04), 575–608 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Sterling, L., Taveter, K.: The Art of Agent-Oriented Modeling. MIT Press, Cambridge (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Valentine, M.A., Edmondson, A.C.: Team scaffolds: how meso-level structures support role-based coordination in temporary groups, Harvard Business School, Working Paper (2014)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank the anonymous reviewers and those who have given feedback on the presentation – all of which helped improve this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kathleen Keogh .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this paper

Cite this paper

Keogh, K., Sonenberg, L. (2015). Designing for Planned Emergence in Multi-agent Systems. In: Ghose, A., Oren, N., Telang, P., Thangarajah, J. (eds) Coordination, Organizations, Institutions, and Norms in Agent Systems X. COIN 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9372. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25420-3_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25420-3_7

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-25419-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-25420-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics