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Distributed Problem Solving and Planning

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Multi-Agent Systems and Applications (ACAI 2001)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 2086))

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Abstract

Distributed problem solving involves the collective effort of multiple problems solvers to combine their knowledge, information, and capabilities so as to develop solutions to problems that each could not have solved as well (if at all) alone. The challenge in distributed problem solving is thus in marshalling the distributed capabilities in the right ways so that the problem solving activities of each agent complement the activities of the others, so as to lead efficiently to effective solutions. Thus, while working together leads to distributed problem solving, there is also the distributed problem of how to work together that must be solved. We consider that problem to be a distributed planning problem, where each agent must formulate plans for what it will do that take into account (sufficiently well) the plans of other agents. In this paper, we characterize the variations of distributed problem solving and distributed planning, and summarize some of the basic techniques that have been developed to date.

This is an abridged and updated version of [15], which is Chapter 3 in Weiss’ MultiAgent Systems: A Modern Approach to Distributed Artificial Intelligence, published by MIT Press in 1999 52

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Artificial Intelligence Laboratory EECS Department, University of Michigan, Acnn Arbor, MI, 48104, USA

    Edmund H. Durfee

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  1. Edmund H. Durfee
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronics and Computer Science Highfield, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK

    Michael Luck

  2. Facultiy of Electr. Engineering, Dept. of Cybernetics Technicka 2, Czech Technical University, 166 27, Prague 6, Czech Republic

    Vladimír Mařík  & Olga Štěpánková  & 

  3. Dept.of Med. Cybernetics and Artificial Intelligence, University of Vienna, Freyung 6, 1010, Vienna, Austria

    Robert Trappl

  4. Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Schottengasse 3, 1010, Vienna, Austria

    Robert Trappl

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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Durfee, E.H. (2001). Distributed Problem Solving and Planning. In: Luck, M., Mařík, V., Štěpánková, O., Trappl, R. (eds) Multi-Agent Systems and Applications. ACAI 2001. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 2086. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-47745-4_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-47745-4_6

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-42312-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47745-7

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