Multi-agent systems: theory and applications survey

Abstract

Research in multi-agent systems MAS aims to understand how a set of autonomous entities called agents can organise themselves to solve problems, achieve tasks and produce global phenomena that agent cannot realise alone. The MAS represent a credible alternative to conventional approaches. Agent-based modelling used to represent computationally complex systems that can not be expressed easily in the form of mathematical equations. MAS draw its ideas from three areas: methods of logical reasoning of classical artificial intelligence AI, process management work of distributed AI and the behavioural approach of artificial life. The first applications of multi-agent simulation appeared in the mid-1980s, and gradually covered a variety of domains, ranging from social science to ethology, ecology, biology, traffic and transport and manufacturing. The goal of this paper is to explore clearly the agent concept and MAS, and furthermore to show the interest of the use and the applications of multi-agent simulation.