1. |
- Abd Alrahman, Yehia, 1986, et al.
(author)
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Modelling and verification of reconfigurable multi-agent systems
- 2021
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In: Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1387-2532 .- 1573-7454. ; 35
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We propose a formalism to model and reason about reconfigurable multi-agent systems. In our formalism, agents interact and communicate in different modes so that they can pursue joint tasks; agents may dynamically synchronize, exchange data, adapt their behaviour, and reconfigure their communication interfaces. Inspired by existing multi-robot systems, we represent a system as a set of agents (each with local state), executing independently and only influence each other by means of message exchange. Agents are able to sense their local states and partially their surroundings. We extend ltl to be able to reason explicitly about the intentions of agents in the interaction and their communication protocols. We also study the complexity of satisfiability and model-checking of this extension.
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2. |
- Berger, Cyrille, et al.
(author)
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RGS⊕: RDF graph synchronization for collaborative robotics
- 2023
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In: Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. - : SPRINGER. - 1387-2532 .- 1573-7454. ; 37:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In the context of collaborative robotics, distributed situation awareness is essential for supporting collective intelligence in teams of robots and human agents where it can be used for both individual and collective decision support. This is particularly important in applications pertaining to emergency rescue and crisis management. During operational missions, data and knowledge is gathered incrementally and in different ways by heterogeneous robots and humans. The purpose of this paper is to describe an RDF Graph Synchronization System called RGS⊕. It is assumed that a dynamic set of agents provide or retrieve knowledge stored in their local RDF Graphs which are continuously synchronized between agents. The RGS⊕ System was designed to handle unreliable communication and does not rely on a static centralized infrastructure. It is capable of synchronizing knowledge as timely as possible and allows agents to access knowledge while it is incrementally acquired. A deeper empirical analysis of the RGS⊕ System is provided that shows both its efficiency and efficacy.
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3. |
- Boella, G., et al.
(author)
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Introduction to the special issue on normative multiagent systems
- 2008
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In: Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1387-2532 .- 1573-7454. ; 17:1, s. 1-10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This special issue contains four selected and revised papers from the second international workshop on normative multiagent systems, for short NorMAS07 (Boella et al. (eds) Normative multiagent systems. Dagstuhl seminar proceedings 07122, 2007), held at Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany, in March 2007. At the workshop a shift was identified in the research community from a legal to an interactionist view on normative multiagent systems. In this editorial we discuss the shift, examples, and 10 new challenges in this more dynamic setting, which we use to introduce the papers of this special issue.
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4. |
- Bulling, Nils, et al.
(author)
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Combining quantitative and qualitative reasoning in concurrent multi-player games
- 2022
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In: Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1387-2532 .- 1573-7454. ; 36:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We propose a general framework for modelling and formal reasoning about multi-agent systems and, in particular, multi-stage games where both quantitative and qualitative objectives and constraints are involved. Our models enrich concurrent game models with payoffs and guards on actions associated with each state of the model and propose a quantitative extension of the logic ATL* that enables the combination of quantitative and qualitative reasoning. We illustrate the framework with some detailed examples. Finally, we consider the model-checking problems arising in our framework and establish some general undecidability and decidability results for them.
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5. |
- De Masellis, Riccardo, et al.
(author)
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Logic-based specification and verification of homogeneous dynamic multi-agent systems
- 2020
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In: Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1387-2532 .- 1573-7454. ; 34:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We develop a logic-based framework for formal specification and algorithmic verification of homogeneous and dynamic concurrent multi-agent transition systems. Homogeneity means that all agents have the same available actions at any given state and the actions have the same effects regardless of which agents perform them. The state transitions are therefore determined only by the vector of numbers of agents performing each action and are specified symbolically, by means of conditions on these numbers definable in Presburger arithmetic. The agents are divided into controllable (by the system supervisor/controller) and uncontrollable, representing the environment or adversary. Dynamicity means that the numbers of controllable and uncontrollable agents may vary throughout the system evolution, possibly at every transition. As a language for formal specification we use a suitably extended version of Alternating-time Temporal Logic, where one can specify properties of the type a coalition of (at least) n controllable agents can ensure against (at most) m uncontrollable agents that any possible evolution of the system satisfies a given objective ., where is specified again as a formula of that language and each of n and m is either a fixed number or a variable that can be quantified over. We provide formal semantics to our logic L HDMAS and define normal form of its formulae. We then prove that every formula in L HDMAS is equivalent in the finite to one in a normal form and develop an algorithm for global model checking of formulae in normal form in finite HDMAS models, which invokes model checking truth of Presburger formulae. We establish worst case complexity estimates for the model checking algorithm and illustrate it on a running example.
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6. |
- Doherty, Patrick, et al.
(author)
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A Temporal Logic-based Planning and Execution Monitoring Framework for Unmanned Aircraft Systems
- 2009
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In: Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. - : Springer. - 1387-2532 .- 1573-7454. ; 19:3, s. 332-377
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Research with autonomous unmanned aircraft systems is reaching a new degree of sophistication where targeted missions require complex types of deliberative capability integrated in a practical manner in such systems. Due to these pragmatic constraints, integration is just as important as theoretical and applied work in developing the actual deliberative functionalities. In this article, we present a temporal logic-based task planning and execution monitoring framework and its integration into a fully deployed rotor-based unmanned aircraft system developed in our laboratory. We use a very challenging emergency services application involving body identification and supply delivery as a vehicle for showing the potential use of such a framework in real-world applications. TALplanner, a temporal logic-based task planner, is used to generate mission plans. Building further on the use of TAL (Temporal Action Logic), we show how knowledge gathered from the appropriate sensors during plan execution can be used to create state structures, incrementally building a partial logical model representing the actual development of the system and its environment over time. We then show how formulas in the same logic can be used to specify the desired behavior of the system and its environment and how violations of such formulas can be detected in a timely manner in an execution monitor subsystem. The pervasive use of logic throughout the higher level deliberative layers of the system architecture provides a solid shared declarative semantics that facilitates the transfer of knowledge between different modules.
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7. |
- Fotedar, Sunney, et al.
(author)
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Robust optimization of a bi-objective tactical resource allocation problem with uncertain qualification costs
- 2022
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In: Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1387-2532 .- 1573-7454. ; 36:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In the presence of uncertainties in the parameters of a mathematical model, optimal solutions using nominal or expected parameter values can be misleading. In practice, robust solutions to an optimization problem are desired. Although robustness is a key research topic within single-objective optimization, little attention is received within multi-objective optimization, i.e. robust multi-objective optimization.This work builds on recent work within robust multi-objective optimization and presents a new robust efficiency concept for bi-objective optimization problems with one uncertain objective. Our proposed concept and algorithmic contribution are tested on a real-world multi-item capacitated resource planning problem, appearing at a large aerospace company manufacturing high precision engine parts. Our algorithm finds all the robust efficient solutions required by the decision-makers in significantly less time than the approach of Kuhn et al. (Eur J Oper Res 252(2):418-431, 2016) on 28 of the 30 industrial instances.
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8. |
- Gasquet, Olivier, et al.
(author)
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Big Brother Logic : visual-epistemic reasoning in stationary multi-agent systems
- 2016
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In: Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1387-2532 .- 1573-7454. ; 30:5, s. 793-825
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We consider multi-agent scenarios where each agent controls a surveillance camera in the plane, with fixed position and angle of vision, but rotating freely. The agents can thus observe the surroundings and each other. They can also reason about each other’s observation abilities and knowledge derived from these observations. We introduce suitable logical languages for reasoning about such scenarios which involve atomic formulae stating what agents can see, multi-agent epistemic operators for individual, distributed and common knowledge, as well as dynamic operators reflecting the ability of cameras to turn around in order to reach positions satisfying formulae in the language. We also consider effects of public announcements. We introduce several different but equivalent versions of the semantics for these languages, discuss their expressiveness and provide translations in PDL style. Using these translations we develop algorithms and obtain complexity results for model checking and satisfiability testing for the basic logic BBL that we introduce here and for some of its extensions. Notably, we show that even for the extension with common knowledge, model checking and satisfiability testing remain in PSPACE. We also discuss the sensitivity of the set of validities to the admissible angles of vision of the agents’ cameras. Finally, we discuss some further extensions: adding obstacles, positioning the cameras in 3D or enabling them to change positions. Our work has potential applications to automated reasoning, formal specification and verification of observational abilities and knowledge of multi-robot systems.
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9. |
- Goranko, Valentin, 1959-, et al.
(author)
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State and Path Coalition Effectivity Models for Logics of Multi-Player Games
- 2016
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In: Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1387-2532 .- 1573-7454. ; 30:3, s. 446-485
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We consider models of multi-player games where abilities of players and coalitions are defined in terms of sets of outcomes which they can effectively enforce. We extend the well-studied state effectivity models of one-step games in two different ways. On the one hand, we develop multiple state effectivity functions associated with different long-term temporal operators. On the other hand, we define and study coalitional path effectivity models where the outcomes of strategic plays are infinite paths. For both extensions we obtain representation results with respect to concrete models arising from concurrent game structures. We also apply state and path coalitional effectivity models to provide alternative, arguably more natural and elegant semantics to the alternating-time temporal logic ATL*, and discuss their technical and conceptual advantages.
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10. |
- Hayes, Conor F., et al.
(author)
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A practical guide to multi-objective reinforcement learning and planning
- 2022
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In: Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. - New York, NY, United States : Springer. - 1387-2532 .- 1573-7454. ; 36:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Real-world sequential decision-making tasks are generally complex, requiring trade-offs between multiple, often conflicting, objectives. Despite this, the majority of research in reinforcement learning and decision-theoretic planning either assumes only a single objective, or that multiple objectives can be adequately handled via a simple linear combination. Such approaches may oversimplify the underlying problem and hence produce suboptimal results. This paper serves as a guide to the application of multi-objective methods to difficult problems, and is aimed at researchers who are already familiar with single-objective reinforcement learning and planning methods who wish to adopt a multi-objective perspective on their research, as well as practitioners who encounter multi-objective decision problems in practice. It identifies the factors that may influence the nature of the desired solution, and illustrates by example how these influence the design of multi-objective decision-making systems for complex problems.
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