Multi-Agent Systems: A Review Study

Hanan Qassim Jaleel,Jane Jaleel Stephan,Sinan A Naji

doi:10.30526/33.3.2483

Abstract

Multi-agent systems are subfield of Artificial Intelligence that has experienced rapid growth because of its flexibility and intelligence in order to solve distributed problems. Multi-agent systems (MAS) have got interest from various researchers in different disciplines for solving sophisticated problems by dividing them into smaller tasks. These tasks can be assigned to agents as autonomous entities with their private database, which act on their environment, perceive, process, retain and recall by using multiple inputs. MAS can be defined as a network of individual agents that share knowledge and communicate with each other in order to solve a problem that is beyond the scope of a single agent. It is imperative to understand the characteristics of the individual agent or computing entity to distinguish a simple distributed system and multi-agent system. To solve each task, the agent can take the appropriate actions, decisions, and can cooperate with other agents to fulfill its goals or objectives. MAS has several applications including cloud computing, web advertisement, e-commerce, computer network, learning abilities, etc. This survey represents a comprehensive discussion of all aspects of MAS, and discusses an overview of MAS definitions, architecture, features, communications, organizations, and finally discusses the some of the real practical applications.

Highlights

Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) are systems that consist of a collection of interacting computing elements known as agents [1]
This paper aims to discuss the main issues of multi-agent systems, their properties, types, organizations, architectures, communication methods and agent communication languages
In this survey, we presented a comprehensive study concerning different issues of Multiagent systems which helps new researchers and practitioners to acquire the knowledge for basic concepts and as insightful resources in MAS

Summary

Introduction

Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) are systems that consist of a collection of interacting computing elements known as agents [1]. If there are different parties (e.g., organizations) with multiple goals and have propriety data and domain knowledge, a multi-agent system is the best way to model their interactions even though some parties wish to build the systems that represent and serves them [2, 3]. This paper aims to discuss the main issues of multi-agent systems, their properties, types, organizations, architectures, communication methods and agent communication languages. It reviews recent applications that are considered an important part of the literature to the new researchers in this field, such as cloud computing, image segmentation, computer networks, e-commerce, and web advertisements It compares between two proposed research techniques for each application, with their contributions, benefits, architecture and limitations.

Agent Definition and Characteristics

ENVIRONMENT

MAS Properties

Simple Hierarchy

AGENT TYPES

19. Conclusion