An Intensional Programming Approach to Multi-agent Coordination in a Distributed Network of Agents

2006 ◽  
pp. 205-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaiyu Wan ◽  
Vasu S. Alagar
Keyword(s):  
Programming Approach ◽  
Distributed Network ◽  
Intensional Programming ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
Agent Coordination

scholarly journals A Programming Approach to Collective Autonomy

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Roberto Casadei ◽  
Gianluca Aguzzi ◽  
Mirko Viroli
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Autonomic Computing ◽  
Autonomous Agents ◽  
Programming Approach ◽  
Multi Agent Systems ◽  
Agent Systems ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
Simulated Case ◽  
Complex Settings

Research and technology developments on autonomous agents and autonomic computing promote a vision of artificial systems that are able to resiliently manage themselves and autonomously deal with issues at runtime in dynamic environments. Indeed, autonomy can be leveraged to unburden humans from mundane tasks (cf. driving and autonomous vehicles), from the risk of operating in unknown or perilous environments (cf. rescue scenarios), or to support timely decision-making in complex settings (cf. data-centre operations). Beyond the results that individual autonomous agents can carry out, a further opportunity lies in the collaboration of multiple agents or robots. Emerging macro-paradigms provide an approach to programming whole collectives towards global goals. Aggregate computing is one such paradigm, formally grounded in a calculus of computational fields enabling functional composition of collective behaviours that could be proved, under certain technical conditions, to be self-stabilising. In this work, we address the concept of collective autonomy, i.e., the form of autonomy that applies at the level of a group of individuals. As a contribution, we define an agent control architecture for aggregate multi-agent systems, discuss how the aggregate computing framework relates to both individual and collective autonomy, and show how it can be used to program collective autonomous behaviour. We exemplify the concepts through a simulated case study, and outline a research roadmap towards reliable aggregate autonomy.

A parametric family of Massey-type methods: inference, prediction, and sensitivity

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-269
Author(s):  
Enrico Bozzo ◽  
Paolo Vidoni ◽  
Massimo Franceschet
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Control Theory ◽  
Dynamic Systems ◽  
Parametric Family ◽  
Time Varying ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
Key Features ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Agent Coordination ◽  
Time Aware

AbstractWe study the stability of a time-aware version of the popular Massey method, previously introduced by Franceschet, M., E. Bozzo, and P. Vidoni. 2017. “The Temporalized Massey’s Method.” Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports 13: 37–48, for rating teams in sport competitions. To this end, we embed the temporal Massey method in the theory of time-varying averaging algorithms, which are dynamic systems mainly used in control theory for multi-agent coordination. We also introduce a parametric family of Massey-type methods and show that the original and time-aware Massey versions are, in some sense, particular instances of it. Finally, we discuss the key features of this general family of rating procedures, focusing on inferential and predictive issues and on sensitivity to upsets and modifications of the schedule.

Multi-agent reinforcement learning using ordinal action selection and approximate policy iteration

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (06) ◽  
pp. 1650053
Author(s):  
Daxue Liu ◽  
Jun Wu ◽  
Xin Xu
Keyword(s):  
Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Single Agent ◽  
Action Selection ◽  
Policy Iteration ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Policy Space ◽  
Markov Games ◽  
Approximate Policy Iteration ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
Agent Coordination

Multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) provides a useful and flexible framework for multi-agent coordination in uncertain dynamic environments. However, the generalization ability and scalability of algorithms to large problem sizes, already problematic in single-agent RL, is an even more formidable obstacle in MARL applications. In this paper, a new MARL method based on ordinal action selection and approximate policy iteration called OAPI (Ordinal Approximate Policy Iteration), is presented to address the scalability issue of MARL algorithms in common-interest Markov Games. In OAPI, an ordinal action selection and learning strategy is integrated with distributed approximate policy iteration not only to simplify the policy space and eliminate the conflicts in multi-agent coordination, but also to realize the approximation of near-optimal policies for Markov Games with large state spaces. Based on the simplified policy space using ordinal action selection, the OAPI algorithm implements distributed approximate policy iteration utilizing online least-squares policy iteration (LSPI). This resulted in multi-agent coordination with good convergence properties with reduced computational complexity. The simulation results of a coordinated multi-robot navigation task illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach.

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