LECTURE 1:

INTRODUCTION

Multiagent Systems
Based on “An Introduction to MultiAgent
Systems” by Michael Wooldridge, John
Wiley & Sons
http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/˜mjw/pubs/imas/
Overview
 Five ongoing trends have marked the history
of computing:
 ubiquity;
 interconnection;
 intelligence;
 delegation; and
 human-orientation
Ubiquity
 The continual reduction in cost of computing
capability has made it possible to introduce
processing power into places and devices
that would have once been uneconomic
 As processing capability spreads,
sophistication (and intelligence of a sort)
becomes ubiquitous
 What could benefit from having a processor
embedded in it…?
Interconnection
 Computer systems today no longer stand
alone, but are networked into large
distributed systems
 The internet is an obvious example, but
networking is spreading its ever-growing
tentacles…
 Since distributed and concurrent systems
have become the norm, some researchers
are putting forward theoretical models that
portray computing as primarily a process of
interaction
Intelligence
 The complexity of tasks that we are capable
of automating and delegating to computers
has grown steadily
 If you don’t feel comfortable with this
definition of “intelligence”, it’s probably
because you are a human
Delegation
 Computers are doing more for us – without
our intervention
 We are giving control to computers, even in
safety critical tasks
 One example: fly-by-wire aircraft, where the
machine’s judgment may be trusted more
than an experienced pilot
 Next on the agenda: fly-by-wire cars,
intelligent braking systems, cruise control that
maintains distance from car in front…
Human Orientation
 The movement away from machine-oriented
views of programming toward concepts and
metaphors that more closely reflect the way
we ourselves understand the world
 Programmers (and users!) relate to the
machine differently
 Programmers conceptualize and implement
software in terms of higher-level – more
human-oriented – abstractions
Programming progression…
 Programming has progressed through:
 machine code;
 assembly language;
 machine-independent programming languages;
 sub-routines;
 procedures & functions;
 abstract data types;
 objects;
to agents.
Global Computing
 What techniques might be needed to deal
with systems composed of 1010 processors?
 Don’t be deterred by its seeming to be
“science fiction”
 Hundreds of millions of people connected by
email once seemed to be “science fiction”…
 Let’s assume that current software
development models can’t handle this…
Where does it bring us?
 Delegation and Intelligence imply the need to
build computer systems that can act
effectively on our behalf
 This implies:
 The ability of computer systems to act
independently
 The ability of computer systems to act in a way
that represents our best interests while interacting
with other humans or systems
Interconnection and Distribution
 Interconnection and Distribution have
become core motifs in Computer Science
 But Interconnection and Distribution, coupled
with the need for systems to represent our
best interests, implies systems that can
cooperate and reach agreements (or even
compete) with other systems that have
different interests (much as we do with other
people)
So Computer Science expands…

 These issues were not studied in Computer

Science until recently
 All of these trends have led to the emergence
of a new field in Computer Science:
multiagent systems
Agents, a Definition
 An agent is a computer system that is
capable of independent action on behalf of
its user or owner (figuring out what needs
to be done to satisfy design objectives,
rather than constantly being told)
Multiagent Systems, a Definition
 A multiagent system is one that consists
of a number of agents, which interact with
one-another
 In the most general case, agents will be
acting on behalf of users with different
goals and motivations
 To successfully interact, they will require
the ability to cooperate, coordinate, and
negotiate with each other, much as
people do
 Agent Design, Society Design
 The course covers two key problems:
 How do we build agents capable of independent,
autonomous action, so that they can successfully carry
out tasks we delegate to them?
 How do we build agents that are capable of interacting
(cooperating, coordinating, negotiating) with other
agents in order to successfully carry out those
delegated tasks, especially when the other agents
cannot be assumed to share the same interests/goals?
 The first problem is agent design, the second is
society design (micro/macro)
Multiagent Systems
 In Multiagent Systems, we address questions
such as:
 How can cooperation emerge in societies of self-
interested agents?
 What kinds of languages can agents use to
communicate?
 How can self-interested agents recognize conflict,
and how can they (nevertheless) reach
agreement?
 How can autonomous agents coordinate their
activities so as to cooperatively achieve goals?
Multiagent Systems
 While these questions are all addressed
in part by other disciplines (notably
economics and social sciences), what
makes the multiagent systems field
unique is that it emphasizes that the
agents in question are computational,
information processing entities.
The Vision Thing
 It’s easiest to understand the field of multiagent
systems if you understand researchers’ vision of
the future
 Fortunately, different researchers have different
visions
 The amalgamation of these visions (and
research directions, and methodologies, and
interests, and…) define the field
 But the field’s researchers clearly have enough
in common to consider each other’s work
relevant to their own
Spacecraft Control
 When a space probe makes its long flight from Earth
to the outer planets, a ground crew is usually
required to continually track its progress, and decide
how to deal with unexpected eventualities. This is
costly and, if decisions are required quickly, it is
simply not practicable. For these reasons,
organizations like NASA are seriously investigating
the possibility of making probes more autonomous
— giving them richer decision making capabilities
and responsibilities.
 This is not fiction: NASA’s DS1 has done it!
Deep Space 1
 http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/
 “Deep Space 1
launched from Cape
Canaveral on October 24,
1998. During a highly
successful primary mission,
it tested 12 advanced, high-risk technologies in
space. In an extremely successful extended
mission, it encountered comet Borrelly and
returned the best images and other science data
ever from a comet. During its fully successful
hyperextended mission, it conducted further
technology tests. The spacecraft was retired on
December 18, 2001.” – NASA Web site
Autonomous Agents for specialized tasks

 The DS1 example is one of a generic class

 Agents (and their physical instantiation in
robots) have a role to play in high-risk
situations, unsuitable or impossible for
humans
 The degree of autonomy will differ depending
on the situation (remote human control may
be an alternative, but not always)
Air Traffic Control
 “A key air-traffic control system…suddenly
fails, leaving flights in the vicinity of the airport
with no air-traffic control support. Fortunately,
autonomous air-traffic control systems in
nearby airports recognize the failure of their
peer, and cooperate to track and deal with all
affected flights.”
 Systems taking the initiative when necessary
 Agents cooperating to solve problems beyond
the capabilities of any individual agent
Internet Agents
 Searching the Internet for the answer to a
specific query can be a long and tedious
process. So, why not allow a computer program
— an agent — do searches for us? The agent
would typically be given a query that would
require synthesizing pieces of information from
various different Internet information sources.
Failure would occur when a particular resource
was unavailable, (perhaps due to network
failure), or where results could not be obtained.
What if the agents become better?
 Internet agents need not simply search
 They can plan, arrange, buy, negotiate –
carry out arrangements of all sorts that would
normally be done by their human user
 As more can be done electronically, software
agents theoretically have more access to
systems that affect the real-world
 But new research problems arise just as
quickly…
 Research Issues
 How do you state your preferences to your agent?
 How can your agent compare different deals from
different vendors? What if there are many
different parameters?
 What algorithms can your agent use to negotiate
with other agents (to make sure you get a good
deal)?
 These issues aren’t frivolous – automated
procurement could be used massively by (for
example) government agencies
 The Trading Agents Competition…
Multiagent Systems is
Interdisciplinary
 The field of Multiagent Systems is influenced and

inspired by many other fields:

 Economics
 Philosophy
 Game Theory
 Logic
 Ecology
 Social Sciences
 This can be both a strength (infusing well-founded
methodologies into the field) and a weakness (there
are many different views as to what the field is about)
 This has analogies with artificial intelligence itself
Some Views of the Field
 Agents as a paradigm for software engineering:
Software engineers have derived a progressively
better understanding of the characteristics of
complexity in software. It is now widely
recognized that interaction is probably the most
important single characteristic of complex
software
 Over the last two decades, a major Computer
Science research topic has been the
development of tools and techniques to model,
understand, and implement systems in which
interaction is the norm
Some Views of the Field
 Agents as a tool for understanding human
societies:
Multiagent systems provide a novel new
tool for simulating societies, which may
help shed some light on various kinds of
social processes.
 This has analogies with the interest in
“theories of the mind” explored by some
artificial intelligence researchers
Some Views of the Field
 Multiagent Systems is primarily a search for
appropriate theoretical foundations:
We want to build systems of interacting,
autonomous agents, but we don’t yet know
what these systems should look like
 You can take a “neat” or “scruffy” approach to
the problem, seeing it as a problem of theory
or a problem of engineering
 This, too, has analogies with artificial
intelligence research
Objections to MAS
 Isn’t it all just Distributed/Concurrent Systems?
There is much to learn from this community,
but:
 Agents are assumed to be autonomous,
capable of making independent decision – so
they need mechanisms to synchronize and
coordinate their activities at run time
 Agents are (can be) self-interested, so their
interactions are “economic” encounters
Objections to MAS
 Isn’t it all just AI?
 We don’t need to solve all the problems of
artificial intelligence (i.e., all the components
of intelligence) in order to build really useful
agents
 Classical AI ignored social aspects of
agency. These are important parts of
intelligent activity in real-world settings
Objections to MAS
 Isn’t it all just Economics/Game Theory?
These fields also have a lot to teach us in
multiagent systems, but:
 Insofar as game theory provides descriptive
concepts, it doesn’t always tell us how to
compute solutions; we’re concerned with
computational, resource-bounded agents
 Some assumptions in economics/game
theory (such as a rational agent) may not be
valid or useful in building artificial agents
Objections to MAS
 Isn’t it all just Social Science?
 We can draw insights from the study of
human societies, but there is no particular
reason to believe that artificial societies
will be constructed in the same way
 Again, we have inspiration and cross-
fertilization, but hardly subsumption
 Applications of Intelligent Agents
 Systems and Network Management
 Mobile Access / Management
 Mail and Messaging
 Information Access and Management
 Collaboration
 Workflow and Administrative Management
 Electronic Commerce: Travel agents, Hotel Booking,
 Adaptive User Interfaces
 Digital Libraries
 Knowledge Management
 Virtual Reality and augmentation
 E learing