Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Agent and Multi-agent Technology for Internet and Enterprise Systems pp 229–255Cite as

A Role-Based Cognitive Architecture for Multi-Agent Teaming

  • Chapter

Part of the book series: Studies in Computational Intelligence ((SCI,volume 289))

Abstract

Agent teaming is a subfield of multi-agent systems that is mainly composed of artificial intelligence and distributed computing techniques. Autonomous agents are required to be able to adapt and learn in uncertain environments via communication and collaboration in both competitive and cooperative situations. The joint intension and sharedPlan are two most popular theories for the teamwork of multi-agent systems. However, there is no clear guideline for designing and implementing agents’ teaming. As a popular cognitive architecture, the BDI (Belief, Desire, and Intension) architecture has been widely used to design multi-agent systems. In this aspect, flexible multi-agent decision making requires effective reactions and adaptation to dynamic environment under time pressure, especially in real-time and dynamic systems. Due to the inherent complexity of real-time, stochastic, and dynamic environments, it is often extremely complex and difficult to formally verify their properties a priori. For real-time, non-deterministic and dynamic systems, it is often difficult to generate enough episodes via real applications for training the goal-oriented agent’s individual and cooperative learning abilities. In this article, a role-based BDI framework is presented to facilitate optimization problems at the team level such as competitive, cooperation, and coordination problems. This BDI framework is extended on the commercial agent software development environment known as JACK Teams. The layered architecture has been used to group the agents’ competitive and cooperative behaviors. In addition, we present the use of reinforcement learning techniques to learn different behaviors through experience. These issues have been investigated and analyzed using a real-time 2D simulation environment known as SoccerBots.

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

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover 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

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. InfoGrames Epic Games and Digital Entertainment. Technical report, Unreal tournament manual (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Teambots (2000), http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~trb/Teambots/Domains/SoccerBots

  3. Humaniod Kid and Medium Size League, Rules and Setup for Osaka 2005. Technical report, Robocup (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Agent Oriented Software Pty Ltd. JACK Intelligent Agents User Guide (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Agent Oriented Software Pty Ltd. JACK Teams User Guide (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Bellman, R.: A Markovian Decision Process. Journal of Mathematics and Mechanics 6 (1957)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Bellman, R.: Dynamic Programming. Princeton University Press, Princeton (1957)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Bradshaw, J.M., Feltovich, P., Jung, H., Kulkarni, S., Allen, J., Bunch, L., Chambers, N., Galescu, L., Jeffers, R., Johnson, M., Sierhuis, M., Taysom, W., Uszok, A., Van Hoof, R.: Policy-based Coordination in Joint Human-agent Activity. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, The Hague, The Netherlands, pp. 2029–2036 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Bratman, M.E.: Intention, Plans, and Practical Reasoning. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Cheyer, A., Martin, D.: The Open Agent Architecture. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 4(1-2), 143–148 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Coen, M.H.: Sodabot: A software agent construction system. Technical report. MIT AI Laboratory, Cambridge (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Cohen, P., Levesque, H., Smith, I.: On Team Formation. Contemporary Action Theory (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Cohen, P.R., Levesque, H.J.: Teamwork. Nous 25(4), 487–512 (1991)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Durfee, E.H., Lesser, V.: Negotiating Task Decomposition and Allocation Using Partial Global Planning. In: Gasser, L., Huhns, M. (eds.) Distributed Artificial Intelligence, pp. 229–244. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  15. Evertsz, R., Fletcher, M., Jones, R., Jarvis, J., Brusey, J., Dance, S.: Implementing Industrial Multi-agent Systems Using JACKTM. In: Dastani, M.M., Dix, J., El Fallah-Seghrouchni, A. (eds.) PROMAS 2003. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 3067, pp. 18–48. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Ferber, J., Gutknecht, O., Michel, F.: From Agents to Organizations: An Organizational View of Multi-agent Systems. In: Giorgini, P., Müller, J.P., Odell, J.J. (eds.) AOSE 2003. LNCS, vol. 2935, pp. 443–459. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Franklin, S., Graesser, A.: Is it an Agent, or Just a Program?: A Taxonomy for Autonomous Agents. In: Jennings, N.R., Wooldridge, M.J., Müller, J.P. (eds.) ECAI-WS 1996 and ATAL 1996. LNCS, vol. 1193, pp. 21–35. Springer, Heidelberg (1996)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  18. Garey, M.R., Johnson, D.S.: Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the theory of NP-completeness. WH Freeman and Company, New York (1979)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  19. Gilbert, D., Aparicio, M., Atkinson, B., Brady, S., Ciccarino, J., Grosof, B., O’Connor, P., Osisek, D., Pritko, S., Spagna, R., Wilson, L.: IBM Intelligent Agent Strategy. Technical report, IBM Corporation (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Grosz, B., Kraus, S.: A Collaborative Plans for Complex Actions. Artificial Intelligence 86, 269–358 (1996)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  21. Grosz, B., Sidner, C.: Plan for Discourse. In: Cohen, P., Morgan, J., Pollack, M. (eds.) Intensions in Communication, pp. 417–444. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Gutknecht, O., Michel, F., Ferber, J.: Integrating Tools and Infrastructure for Generic Multi-Agent Systems, Autonomous Agents 2001. ACM Press, New York (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Jennings, N.R.: On Agent-based Software Engineering. Artificial Intelligence 117, 277–296 (2000)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  24. Jennings, N.R., Sycara, K., Wooldridge, M.: A Roadmap of Agent Research and Development. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 1(1), 7–38 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Laird, J.E., Newell, A., Rosenbloom, P.S.: Soar: an architecture for general intelligence. Artificial Intelligence 33(1), 1–64 (1987)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  26. Leng, J., Fyfe, C., Jain, L.: Reinforcement Learning of Competitive Skills with Soccer Agents. In: Apolloni, B., Howlett, R.J., Jain, L.C. (eds.) KES 2007, Part I. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 4692, pp. 572–579. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  27. Leng, J., Jain, L., Fyfe, C.: Simulation and Reinforcement Learning with Soccer Agents. International Journal of Multiagent and Grid Systems 4(4), 415–436 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Lind, J.: Agents, Multiagent Systems and Software Engineering. In: Lind, J. (ed.) Iterative Software Engineering for Multiagent Systems. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 1994, pp. 9–33. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  29. Pokahr, A., Braubach, L., Lamersdorf, W.: Jadex: Implementing a BDI-Infrastructure for JADE Agents. EXP – in search of innovation 3(3), 76–85 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Rao, A.S., Georgeff, M.P.: BDI-agents: from theory to practice. In: Proceedings of the First Intelligent Conference on Multiagent Systems (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Russell, S., Norvig, P.: Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs (1995)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  32. Russell, S., Norvig, P.: Heuristic: Intelligent Search Strategies for Computer Problem Solving, A Modern Approach. Prentice-Hall, Englewood (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Sioutis, C.: Reasoning and Learning for Intelligent Agents. PhD thesis, School of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of South Australia (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Stone, P.: Layered Learning in Multiagent Systems: A Winning Approach to Robotic Soccer. MIT Press, Cambridge (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  35. Stone, P., Kuhlmann, G., Taylor, M.E., Liu, Y.: Keepaway Soccer: From Machine Learning Testbed to Benchmark. In: Bredenfeld, A., Jacoff, A., Noda, I., Takahashi, Y. (eds.) RoboCup 2005. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 4020, pp. 93–105. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  36. Stone, P., Sutton, R.S., Kuhlmann, G.: Reinforcement Learning for RoboCup-Soccer Keepaway. Adaptive Behavior 13(3), 165–188 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Stone, P., Veloso, M.: Task Decomposition, Dynamic Role Assignment, and Low-Bandwidth Communication for Real-Time Strategic Teamwork. Artificial Intelligence 110(2), 241–273 (1999)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  38. Sutton, R.S., Barto, A.G.: Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction. MIT Press, Cambridge (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  39. Sycara, K.: MultiAgent Systems. AI Magazine 19(2), 79–92 (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  40. Tambe, M.: Towards Flexible Teamwork. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research 7, 83–124 (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  41. Tweedale, J., Ichalkaranje, N., Sioutis, C., Urlings, P., Jain, L.C.: Building a Decision Making Framework using Agent Teams. International Journal of Intelligent Decision Technologies 1(4), 175–181 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  42. van Breemen, A.J.N.: Integrating Agents in Software Applications. In: Kowalczyk, R., Müller, J.P., Tianfield, H., Unland, R. (eds.) NODe-WS 2002. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 2592, pp. 343–354. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  43. Whiteson, S., Stone, P.: Concurrent Layered Learning. In: Proceeding of the Second International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS 2003), Australia,, pp. 193–200 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  44. Wooldridge, M.: Reasoning About Rational Agents. MIT Press, Cambridge (2000)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  45. Wooldridge, M., Jennings, N.: Intelligent agents: Theory and practice. Knowledge Engineering Review 10 (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  46. Yen, J., Yin, J., Ioerger, T.R., Miller, M.S., Xu, D., Volz, R.A.: CAST: Collaborative Agents for Simulating Teamwork. In: IJCAI, pp. 1135–1144 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  47. Zaki, Y., Pierre, S.: Mobile Agents in Distributed Meeting Scheduling: A Case Study for Distributed Applications. International Journal of Intelligent Decision Technologies 1(1-2), 71–82 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  48. Zhang, Y.: Modelling role-based agent team. In: Kobti, Z., Wu, D. (eds.) Canadian AI 2007. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 4509, pp. 1–13. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer and Security Science, Edith Cowan University, WA, 6050, Australia

    Jinsong Leng & Dongguang Li

  2. School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Science Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

    Chee Peng Lim

  3. School of Computer and Information Science, University of South Australia, SA, 5095, Australia

    Jiuyong Li

  4. School of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of South Australia, SA, 5095, Australia

    Lakhmi Jain

Authors
  1. Jinsong Leng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Chee Peng Lim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jiuyong Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Dongguang Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Lakhmi Jain
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1.   , Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Forum 100, SE-164 40, Kista, Sweden

    Anne Hãkansson

  2. Division of Computer and Information Sciences, Franklin University , 43224, Columbus Ohio, USA

    Ronald Hartung

  3. Institute of Computer Science, Wroclaw University of Technology , Str.Wyb.Wypsianskiego 27, 50-370, Wroclaw, Poland

    Ngoc Thanh Nguyen

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Leng, J., Lim, C.P., Li, J., Li, D., Jain, L. (2010). A Role-Based Cognitive Architecture for Multi-Agent Teaming. In: Hãkansson, A., Hartung, R., Nguyen, N.T. (eds) Agent and Multi-agent Technology for Internet and Enterprise Systems. Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol 289. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13526-2_11

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13526-2_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-13525-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-13526-2

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation