Abstract
Research on situated multi-agent systems investigates how to model a distributed application as a set of cooperating autonomous entities (agents) which are situated in an environment. Many fundamental issues remain unrevealed in this research area. A profound understanding of these issues, however, is necessary before situated multi-agent systems can be applied to industry-strength applications. We use the abstract application called the Packet-World quite extensively as a test bed for investigating, experimenting and evaluating fundamental concepts and mechanisms. Examples are active perception, decision making of situated agents, synchronization of simultaneous actions and indirect coordination. The Packet-World has direct connections with real-world applications, such as the decentralized control of a warehouse transportation system through unmanned vehicles. In this article, we describe the Packet-World and we give an overview of our research for which we have used the Packet-World as a test bed.
This work was completed with the support of the Concerted Research Action on Agents for Coordination and Control project and the Egemin Modular Controls Concept project.
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
J. L. Austin, How To Do Things With Words. Oxford University Press, UK (1962).
O. Babaoglu, H. Meling and H. Montresoret, Anthill: A Framework for the Development of Agent-Based Peer-to-Peer Systems. 22th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems, Vienna, Austria (2002).
T. Balch and R.C Arkin, Communication in Reactive Multiagent Robotic Systems. Autonomous Robots 1(1) (1994), 27–52.
H.R. Berenji and D. Vengerov, Cooperation and Coordination Between Fuzzy Reinforcement Learning Agents. 8th IEEE Conference on Fuzzy Systems, Korea (1999).
E. Bonabeau, F. Hnaux, S. Gurin, D. Snyers, P. Kuntz and G. Theraulaz, Routing in Telecommunications Networks with Ant-Like Agents. IATA (1998), 60–71.
R.A. Brooks, Intelligence Without Representation. Workshop in Foundations of Artificial Intelligence, Dedham, MA (1987).
R.A. Brooks, Intelligence Without Reason. MIT AI Lab Memo No. 1293 (1991).
L. Claesen, Regional Synchronization in the Packet-World. Master thesis Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (2004), available in English.
M. Dorigo and L.M. Gambardella, Ant Colony System: A Cooperative Learning Approach to the Traveling Salesman Problem. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation 1(1) (1997), 53–66.
J. De Meulenaere, Stigmergy Applied in the Packet-World. Master thesis Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (2003), only available in Dutch.
J.L. Deneubourg, A. Aron, S. Goss, J.M. Pasteels and G. Duerinck, Random Behavior, Amplification Processes and Number of Participants: How they Contribute to the Foraging Properties of Ants. Physics 22(D) (1986), 176–186.
A. Drogoul and J. Ferber, Multi-Agent Simulation as a Tool for Modeling Societies Decentralized A.I. 4, Elsevier (1992).
J. Ferber, Multi-Agent Systems, An Introduction to Distributed Artificial Intelligence. Addison-Wesley, Great Britain (1999).
P. Grassé, La theorie de la Stigmergie: Essai d’interpretation du Comportement des Termites Constructeurs. Insectes Sociaux, Vol. 6 (1959).
A. Helleboogh, T. Holvoet and D. Weyns, Time Management Support for Simulating Multi-Agent Systems., AAMAS Workshop on Multiagent and Multiagent-based Simulation, New York (2004).
A. Helleboogh, T. Holvoet and D. Weyns, Towards Time Management Adaptability in Multi-Agent Systems. AISB 2004 Fourth Symposium on Adaptive Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, (2005).
M. Huhns and L. Stephens, Multiagent Systems and Societies of Agents. Multiagent Systems, A Modern Approach to Distributed Artificial Intelligence, MIT Press (2000).
D. Kinny, Measuring the Effectiveness of Situated Agents. Technical Report 11, Australian AI Institute, Carlton, Australia (1990).
P. Maes, Modeling Adaptive Autonomous Agents. Artificial Life Journal 1(1–2), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA (1994), 135–162.
V. Parunak, Go to the Ant: Engineering Principles from Natural Agent Systems. Annals of Operations Research 75 (1997), 69–101.
V. Parunak, A.D. Baker and S.J. Clark, The AARIA Agent Architecture: From Manufacturing Requirements to Agent-Based System Design. Workshop on Agent-Based Manufacturing, ICAA98, Minneapolis, MN (1998).
M. Pollack and M. Ringuette, Introducing the Tileworld: experimentally evaluating agent architectures, Eighth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, CA (1990).
K. Rosenblatt and D. Payton, A fine grained alternative to the subsumbtion architecture for mobile robot control. IEEE Joint Conference on Neural Networks, (1989).
J.A. Sauter and V. Parunak, ANTS in the Supply Chain. Workshop on Agent based Decision Support for Managing the Internet-Enabled Supply Chain, WA (1999).
L. Steels, Cooperation between distributed agents through self-organization. First European Workshop on Modeling Autonomous Agents in a Multi-Agent World, Elsevier Science Publishers, Holland (1990), 175–196.
T. Tyrrell, Computational Mechanisms for Action Selection. PhD dissertation, University of Edinburgh (1993).
B. Vandeweerdt, A Model for the Environment in Reactive Multi-Agent Systems. Master thesis Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (2003), only available in Dutch.
D. Weyns and T. Holvoet, Regional Synchronization for Simultaneous Actions in Situated Multi-Agent Systems. 3rd International/Central and Eastern European Conference on Multi-Agent Systems, Czech Republic, LNCS 2691 Springer (2003).
D. Weyns and T. Holvoet, A Model for Simultaneous Actions in Situated Multi-Agent Systems. 1st International German Conference on Multi-Agent System Technologies, Germany, LNCS 2831 (2003).
D. Weyns and T. Holvoet, A Formal Model for Situated Multi-agent Systems. Fundamenta Informaticae 63(2–3) (2004), 125–158.
D. Weyns, E. Steegmans and T. Holvoet, Combining Adaptive Behavior and Role Modeling with Statecharts. 3th International Workshop on Software Engineering for Large-Scale Multi-Agent Systems, ICSE, Scotland (2004).
D. Weyns, E. Steegmans and T. Holvoet, Protocol Based Communication for Situated Multi-Agent Systems. 3th International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, New York (2004), 118–127.
D. Weyns, E. Steegmans and T. Holvoet, Towards Active Percption in Situated Multi-Agent Systems. Journal on Applied Artificial Intelligence 18(8–9) (2004), 867–883.
D. Weyns, K. Schelfthout and T. Holvoet, Decentralized Control of E’GV Transportation Systems. 4th Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, Industry Track, Utrecht, (2005).
M. Wooldridge, An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems. John Wiley and Sons, England (2002).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2005 Birkhäuser Verlag
About this paper
Cite this paper
Weyns, D., Helleboogh, A., Holvoet, T. (2005). The Packet-World: A Test Bed for Investigating Situated Multi-Agent Systems. In: Unland, R., Calisti, M., Klusch, M. (eds) Software Agent-Based Applications, Platforms and Development Kits. Whitestein Series in Software Agent Technologies. Birkhäuser Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-7643-7348-2_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-7643-7348-2_16
Publisher Name: Birkhäuser Basel
Print ISBN: 978-3-7643-7347-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-7643-7348-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)