scholarly journals Multi-Agent Systems

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 1402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicente Julian ◽  
Vicente Botti

With the current advance of technology, agent-based applications are becoming a standard in a great variety of domains such as e-commerce, logistics, supply chain management, telecommunications, healthcare, and manufacturing. Another reason for the widespread interest in multi-agent systems is that these systems are seen as a technology and a tool that helps in the analysis and development of new models and theories in large-scale distributed systems or in human-centered systems. This last aspect is currently of great interest due to the need for democratization in the use of technology that allows people without technical preparation to interact with the devices in a simple and coherent way. In this Special Issue, different interesting approaches that advance this research discipline have been selected and presented.

2004 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
SARVAPALI D. RAMCHURN ◽  
DONG HUYNH ◽  
NICHOLAS R. JENNINGS

Trust is a fundamental concern in large-scale open distributed systems. It lies at the core of all interactions between the entities that have to operate in such uncertain and constantly changing environments. Given this complexity, these components, and the ensuing system, are increasingly being conceptualised, designed, and built using agent-based techniques and, to this end, this paper examines the specific role of trust in multi-agent systems. In particular, we survey the state of the art and provide an account of the main directions along which research efforts are being focused. In so doing, we critically evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of the main models that have been proposed and show how, fundamentally, they all seek to minimise the uncertainty in interactions. Finally, we outline the areas that require further research in order to develop a comprehensive treatment of trust in complex computational settings.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Mariani ◽  
Andrea Omicini

Multi-agent systems (MAS) allow and promote the development of distributed and intelligent applications in complex and dynamic environments. Applications of this kind have a crucial role in our everyday life, as witnessed by the broad range of domains they are deployed to—such as manufacturing, management sciences, e-commerce, biotechnology, etc. Despite heterogeneity, those domains share common requirements such as autonomy, structured interaction, mobility, and openness—which are well suited for MAS. Therein, in fact, goal-oriented processes can enter and leave the system dynamically and interact with each other according to structured protocols. This special issue gathers 17 contributions spanning from agent-based modelling and simulation to applications of MAS in situated and socio-technical systems.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Husáková

Abstract Complex systems are characterised by a huge amount of components, which are highly linked with each other. Tourism is one of the examples of complex systems collecting various activities leading to the enrichment of travellers in the view of receiving new experiences and increasing economic prosperity of specific destinations. The complex systems can be investigated with various bottom-up and top-down approaches. The multi-agent-based modelling is the bottom-up approach that is focused on the representation of individual entities for the exploration of possible interactions among them and their effects on surrounding environments. These systems are able to integrate knowledge of socio-cultural, economic, physical, biological or environmental systems for in-silico models development, which can be used for experimentation with a system. The main aim of the presented text is to introduce links between tourism, complexity and to advocate usefulness of the multi-agent-based systems for the exploration of tourism and its sustainability. The evaluation of suitability of the multi-agent systems in tourism is based on the investigation of fundamental characteristics of these two systems and on the review of specific applications of the multi-agent systems in sustainable tourism.


Author(s):  
Federico Bergenti ◽  
Enrico Franchi ◽  
Agostino Poggi

In this chapter, the authors describe the relationships between multi-agent systems, social networks, and the Semantic Web within collaborative work; they also review how the integration of multi-agent systems and Semantic Web technologies and techniques can be used to enhance social networks at all scales. The chapter first provides a review of relevant work on the application of agent-based models and abstractions to the key ingredients of our work: collaborative systems, the Semantic Web, and social networks. Then, the chapter discusses the reasons current multi-agent systems and their foreseen evolution might be a fundamental means for the realization of the future Semantic Social Networks. Finally, some conclusions are drawn.


Author(s):  
Yves Wautelet ◽  
Christophe Schinckus ◽  
Manuel Kolp

Information systems are deeply linked to human activities. Unfortunately, development methodologies have been traditionally inspired by programming concepts and not by organizational and human ones. This leads to ontological and semantic gaps between the systems and their environments. The adoption of agent orientation and multi-agent systems (MAS) helps to reduce these gaps by offering modeling tools based on organizational concepts (actors, agents, goals, objectives, responsibilities, social dependencies, etc.) as fundamentals to conceive systems through all the development process. Moreover, software development is becoming increasingly complex. Stakeholders' expectations are growing higher while the development agendas have to be as short as possible. Project managers, business analysts, and software developers need adequate processes and models to specify the organizational context, capture requirements, and build efficient and flexible systems.


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