2009 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
Collaborative Agents for Complex Problems Solving
Authors : Minjie Zhang, Quan Bai, Fenghui Ren, John Fulcher
Published in: Computational Intelligence
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.
Select sections of text to find matching patents with Artificial Intelligence. powered by
Select sections of text to find additional relevant content using AI-assisted search. powered by
Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) are particularly well suited to complex problem solving, whether the MAS comprises cooperative or competitive (selfinterested) agents. In this context we discuss both dynamic team formation among the former, as well as partner selection strategies with the latter type of agent. One-shot, long-term, and (fuzzy-based) flexible formation strategies are compared and contrasted, and experiments described which compare these strategies along dimensions of Agent Search Time and Award Distribution Situation.We find that the flexible formation strategy is best suited to self-interested agents in open, dynamic environments. Agent negotiation among competitive agents is also discussed, in the context of collaborative problem solving. We present a modification to Zhang’s Dual Concern Model which enables agents to make reasonable estimates of potential partner behavior during negotiation. Lastly, we introduce a Quadratic Regression approach to partner behavior analysis/estimation, which overcomes some of the limitations of Machine Learning-based approaches.