Scaling Up Agent Coordination Strategies

Deploying intelligent agents to do peoples' bidding in environments ranging from Internet marketplaces to Mars has received much attention. Exactly what an agent is and in what sense a computational agent can behave intelligently remain the subject of considerable debate. However, most would agree that coordination, an agent's fundamental capability to decide on its own actions in the context of the activities of other agents around it, is a central concern of intelligent agency. The value of an intelligent agent coordination strategy lies in how well it scales along various dimensions of stress. Understanding the agent population, its task environment, and expectations about its collective behavior are central to mapping the space of potential approaches. The paper discusses agent coordination and dimensions of coordination stress.