The use of organizational self-design to coordinate multiagent systems

Multiagent systems are increasingly being used to solve a wide variety of problems in a range of applications such as distributed sensing, information retrieval, workflow and business process management, air traffic control and spacecraft control, amongst others. Each of these systems has to be designed at two levels: the micro-architecture level, which involves the design of the individual agents and the macro-architecture level which involves the design of the agents' organizational structure. In this research, we are primarily concerned with the agents' macro-architecture. At the macro-architecture level, the multiagent designer is concerned with issues such as the number of agents needed to solve the problem, the assignment of tasks to the agents and the coordination mechanisms being used. The design of the agents' macro-architecture is complicated by the fact that there is no best way to organize and all ways of organizing are not equally effective. Instead the optimal organizational structure depends on the problem at hand and the environmental conditions under which the problem needs to be solved. In some cases, the environmental conditions may not be known a priori, at design time, in which case the multi-agent designer does not know how to develop an optimal organizational structure. In other cases, the environmental conditions may change requiring a re-design of the agents' macro-architecture. These are only a few of the many hurdles confronting the macro-architecture designer. In our research, we simplify the macro-architectural design by passing on some of the macro-architectural design responsibilities to the agents themselves. That is, instead of manually designing the macro-architecture of a multiagent system at design time, we allow the agents to come up with their own organizational structure at run time. This approach is known as Organizational Self Design (OSD) and it allows the agents to adapt their organizational structure to changing environmental conditions and differences in the problems being solved. Most of the current work on OSD has focused on task-oriented domains. In our research, we extend OSD to apply to worth-oriented domains, the hardest class of problems. Our research focuses on developing algorithms and mechanisms that allow (a) the generation of agents as an artifact of the system; and (b) the generation of different organizational structures that make different quality/cost tradeoffs based on the organizational design constraints specified and the performance criteria being optimized. Such tradeoffs are not possible in task-oriented and state-oriented domains.

[1]  David P. Anderson,et al.  BOINC: a system for public-resource computing and storage , 2004, Fifth IEEE/ACM International Workshop on Grid Computing.

[2]  Claudia V. Goldman,et al.  Evolving Organizations of Agents , 1997 .

[3]  Milind Tambe,et al.  Towards Flexible Teamwork , 1997, J. Artif. Intell. Res..

[4]  Kathleen M. Carley.  Smart Agents and Organizations of the Future , 2001 .

[5]  Jeffrey S. Rosenschein,et al.  Rules of Encounter - Designing Conventions for Automated Negotiation among Computers , 1994 .

[6]  Frank Dignum,et al.  Towards Dynamic Reorganization of Agent Societies , 2004 .

[7]  Bryan Horling,et al.  Quantitative organizational modeling and design for multi-agent systems , 2006 .

[8]  Victor R. Lesser,et al.  Design-to-time scheduling and anytime algorithms , 1996, SGAR.

[9]  Milind Tambe,et al.  Building Agent Teams Using an Explicit Teamwork Model and Learning , 1999, Artif. Intell..

[10]  Victor R. Lesser,et al.  The Use of Meta-Level Control for Coordination in a Distributed Problem Solving Network , 1983, IJCAI.

[11]  Somesh Jha,et al.  Agent cloning: an approach to agent mobility and resource allocation , 1998 .

[12]  H. Simon.  Bounded Rationality and Organizational Learning , 1991 .

[13]  S. Robbins.  Organization theory: Structure, design, and applications , 1987 .

[14]  Victor R. Lesser,et al.  BIG: An agent for resource-bounded information gathering and decision making , 2000, Artif. Intell..

[15]  Michael P. Wellman,et al.  Market-aware agents for a multiagent world , 1998, Robotics Auton. Syst..

[16]  Ian J. Taylor,et al.  Peer-To-Peer Techniques for Data Distribution in Desktop Grid Computing Platforms , 2007, CoreGRID Workshop - Making Grids Work.

[17]  Trung Dong Huynh,et al.  Trust and reputation in open multi-agent systems , 2006 .

[18]  Nicolaas J. Vriend.  ACE MODELS OF ENDOGENOUS INTERACTIONS , 2006 .

[19]  Guido Boella,et al.  Normative framework for normative system change , 2009, AAMAS 2009.

[20]  AGRE: Integrating Environments with Organizations , 2004, E4MAS.

[21]  Abhishek Chandra,et al.  Reputation-Based Scheduling on Unreliable Distributed Infrastructures , 2006, 26th IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS'06).

[22]  Matthias Klusch,et al.  Dynamic Coalition Formation among Rational Agents , 2002, IEEE Intell. Syst..

[23]  Reid G. Smith,et al.  The Contract Net Protocol: High-Level Communication and Control in a Distributed Problem Solver , 1980, IEEE Transactions on Computers.

[24]  Olivier Boissier,et al.  Modeling Organization in MAS: A Comparison of Models , 2005 .

[25]  Keith S. Decker,et al.  Organizational Self-Design in Worth-Oriented Domains , 2009, Handbook of Research on Multi-Agent Systems.

[26]  Edmund H. Durfee,et al.  Designing tree-structured organizations for computational agents , 1996, Comput. Math. Organ. Theory.

[27]  Paolo Traverso,et al.  Automated planning - theory and practice , 2004 .

[28]  Makoto Yokoo,et al.  Organization Self-Design of Distributed Production Systems , 1992, IEEE Trans. Knowl. Data Eng..

[29]  Andreas Abecker,et al.  Towards Agent-Mediated Knowledge Management , 2003, AMKM.

[30]  Victor R. Lesser,et al.  Design-to-Criteria Scheduling: Real-Time Agent Control , 2000, Agents Workshop on Infrastructure for Multi-Agent Systems.

[31]  Victor R. Lesser,et al.  Cooperative Multiagent Systems: A Personal View of the State of the Art , 1999, IEEE Trans. Knowl. Data Eng..

[32]  Keith S. Decker,et al.  Organizational self-design in semi-dynamic environments , 2006, AAMAS '06.

[33]  Matjaz B. Juric,et al.  Business process execution language for web services , 2004 .

[34]  Vijay S. Pande,et al.  Screen Savers of the World Unite! , 2000, Science.

[35]  Pattie Maes,et al.  Agent-mediated Electronic Commerce : A Survey , 1998 .

[36]  Mark S. Fox,et al.  An Organizational View of Distributed Systems , 1988, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.

[37]  Victor Lesser,et al.  Environment Centered Analysis and Design of Coordination Mechanisms , 1996 .

[38]  Terry L. Zimmerman,et al.  Distributed management of flexible times schedules , 2007, AAMAS '07.

[39]  H. Van Dyke Parunak,et al.  "Go to the ant": Engineering principles from natural multi-agent systems , 1997, Ann. Oper. Res..

[40]  K. Suzanne Barber,et al.  Dynamic reorganization of decision-making groups , 2001, AGENTS '01.

[41]  Franco Zambonelli,et al.  Developing multiagent systems: The Gaia methodology , 2003, TSEM.

[42]  E. Feigenbaum.  Simon, Herbert A. , 2006 .

[43]  Martin Gardner,et al.  Wheels, life, and other mathematical amusements , 1983 .

[44]  Matjaz B. Juric,et al.  Business Process Execution Language for Web Services BPEL and BPEL4WS 2nd Edition , 2006 .

[45]  Sarit Kraus,et al.  Methods for Task Allocation via Agent Coalition Formation , 1998, Artif. Intell..

[46]  Mark Klein,et al.  An experimental evaluation of domain-independent fault handling services in open multi-agent systems , 2000, Proceedings Fourth International Conference on MultiAgent Systems.

[47]  Abhishek Chandra,et al.  Ridge: combining reliability and performance in open grid platforms , 2007, HPDC '07.

[48]  Ron Sanchez,et al.  Advanced Series in Management , 2010 .

[49]  David P. Anderson,et al.  Celebrating Diversity in Volunteer Computing , 2009 .

[50]  Randall Davis,et al.  Distributed Problem Solving: The Contract Net Approach , 1978 .

[51]  Richard S. Sutton,et al.  Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction , 1998, IEEE Trans. Neural Networks.

[52]  Michael J. Prietula,et al.  Computational organization theory , 1994 .

[53]  Milind Tambe,et al.  The Communicative Multiagent Team Decision Problem: Analyzing Teamwork Theories and Models , 2011, J. Artif. Intell. Res..

[54]  Vincent Hilaire,et al.  Applications of Self-Organising Multi-Agent Systems: An Initial Framework for Comparison , 2006, Informatica.

[55]  Victor R. Lesser,et al.  Analyzing, modeling and predicting organizational effects in a distribuited sensor network , 2005, Journal of the Brazilian Computer Society.

[56]  H. Simon,et al.  A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice , 1955 .

[57]  Milind Tambe,et al.  Role allocation and reallocation in multiagent teams: towards a practical analysis , 2003, AAMAS '03.

[58]  Marie-Pierre Gleizes,et al.  Self-Organisation and Emergence in MAS: An Overview , 2006, Informatica.

[59]  Scott A. DeLoach,et al.  A capabilities-based model for adaptive organizations , 2008, Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems.

[60]  Edmund H. Durfee,et al.  An Organizational Self-Design Model for Organizational Change , 1993 .

[61]  Javier Vázquez-Salceda,et al.  OMNI: Introducing Social Structure, Norms and Ontologies into Agent Organizations , 2004, PROMAS.

[62]  Victor R. Lesser,et al.  Using self-diagnosis to adapt organizational structures , 2001, AGENTS '01.

[63]  Edmund H. Durfee,et al.  Evaluating Research in Cooperative Distributed Problem Solving , 1990, Distributed Artificial Intelligence.

[64]  Theresa K. Lant,et al.  Computer simulations of organizations as experiential learning systems: implications for organization theory , 1994 .

[65]  N. R. Jennings,et al.  To appear in: Int Journal of Group Decision and Negotiation GDN2000 Keynote Paper Automated Negotiation: Prospects, Methods and Challenges , 2022 .

[66]  L. C. Lee,et al.  The Stability, Scalability and Performance of Multi-agent Systems , 1998 .

[67]  Carlos José Pereira de Lucena,et al.  Experience and prospects for various control strategies for self-replicating multi-agent systems , 2006, SEAMS '06.

[68]  Keith S. Decker,et al.  Coordinating Mutually Exclusive Resources using GPGP , 2000, Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems.

[69]  Yann Chevaleyre,et al.  Issues in Multiagent Resource Allocation , 2006, Informatica.

[70]  W. Richard Scott.  Organizations: Rational, Natural, and Open Systems , 1981 .

[71]  Marie-Pierre Gleizes,et al.  Self-organization in multi-agent systems , 2005, The Knowledge Engineering Review.

[72]  Andrew A. Chien,et al.  Study of a highly accurate and fast protein–ligand docking method based on molecular dynamics , 2005, Concurr. Comput. Pract. Exp..

[73]  Kathleen M. Carley.  Computational organizational science and organizational engineering , 2002, Simul. Model. Pract. Theory.

[74]  Katia P. Sycara,et al.  Cloning for Intelligent Adaptive Information Agents , 1996, DAI.

[75]  Yingqian Zhang,et al.  Computing the fault tolerance of multi-agent deployment , 2009, Artif. Intell..

[76]  Pierre Sens,et al.  Towards Adaptive Fault-Tolerance For Distributed Multi-Agent Systems , 2001 .

[77]  Ian T. Foster,et al.  The Anatomy of the Grid: Enabling Scalable Virtual Organizations , 2001, Int. J. High Perform. Comput. Appl..

[78]  Myong-Hun Chang,et al.  AGENT-BASED MODELS OF ORGANIZATIONS * , 2006 .

[79]  Javier Vázquez-Salceda,et al.  Organizing Multiagent Systems , 2005, Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems.

[80]  Keith S. Decker,et al.  Exploring Robustness in the Context of Organizational Self-design , 2009, COIN@AAMAS&AAAI.

[81]  William Wright,et al.  Emergent behaviours considered harmful , 2003, AAMAS '03.

[82]  Les Gasser,et al.  A Dynamic Organizational Architecture for Adaptive Problem Solving , 1991, AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence.

[83]  Keith S. Decker,et al.  The Analysis of Coordination in an Information System Application - Emergency Medical Services , 2004, AOIS.

[84]  Julio Vera,et al.  Detection of potential enzyme targets by metabolic modelling and optimization: Application to a simple enzymopathy , 2007, Bioinform..

[85]  K. Suzanne Barber,et al.  Adaptive decision-making frameworks for dynamic multi-agent organizational change , 2006, Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems.

[86]  Mark Klein,et al.  Civil Agent Societies: Tools for Inventing Open Agent-Mediated Electronic Marketplaces , 1999, Agent Mediated Electronic Commerce.

[87]  Ramachandra Kota,et al.  Self-organising agent organisations , 2009, AAMAS.

[88]  Ramachandra Kota,et al.  Decentralised Structural Adaptation in Agent Organisations , 2008, AAMAS-OAMAS.

[89]  W. W. Daniel.  Applied Nonparametric Statistics , 1979 .

[90]  Victor R. Lesser.  Evolution of the GPGP/TÆMS domain-independent coordination framework , 2002, AAMAS.

[91]  Jacques Ferber,et al.  Environments for Multiagent Systems State-of-the-Art and Research Challenges , 2004, E4MAS.

[92]  Jacques Ferber,et al.  From Agents to Organizations: An Organizational View of Multi-agent Systems , 2003, AOSE.

[93]  A. Cassandra,et al.  Exact and approximate algorithms for partially observable markov decision processes , 1998 .

[94]  Ugo Merlone,et al.  A multi-agent simulation platform for modeling perfectly rational and bounded-rational agents in organizations , 2002, J. Artif. Soc. Soc. Simul..

[95]  Avigdor Gal,et al.  Negotiation-based price discrimination for information goods , 2004, Proceedings of the Third International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, 2004. AAMAS 2004..

[96]  Victor R. Lesser,et al.  Lateral and Hierarchical Partial Centralization for Distributed Coordination and Scheduling of Complex Hierarchical Task Networks , 2006, AAAI Spring Symposium: Distributed Plan and Schedule Management.

[97]  Nicholas R. Jennings,et al.  Pitfalls of agent-oriented development , 1998, AGENTS '98.