Applied Sciences (Aug 2020)

Designing Multi-Agent System Organisations for Flexible Runtime Behaviour

  • Kathleen Keogh,
  • Liz Sonenberg

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/app10155335
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 15
p. 5335

Abstract

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We address the challenge of multi-agent system (MAS) design for organisations of agents acting in dynamic and uncertain environments where runtime flexibility is required to enable improvisation through sharing knowledge and adapting behaviour. We identify behavioural features that correspond to runtime improvisation by agents in a MAS organisation and from this analysis describe the OJAzzIC meta-model and an associated design method. We present results from simulation scenarios, varying both problem complexity and the level of organisational support provided in the design, to show that increasing design time guidance in the organisation specification can enable runtime flexibility afforded to agents and improve performance. Hence the results demonstrate the usefulness of the constructs captured in the OJAzzIC meta-model.

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