Multi-agent System Architecture Research Articles

Multilevel analysis for agent-based service composition

Agent-based Web service composition has become one of the most challenging research issues. Many composition techniques and formalizations have been proposed, but they are neither mature nor flexible. They assume that each sub-task is an atomic process, hence it cannot be decomposed based on user requirements. Moreover, those techniques and formalizations are not suitable for dynamic environments such as the language service domain. Language service requires a flexible formalization to accommodate the user's language skills in conjunction with QoS. The key contributions of this paper are (i) a complete formalization that ideally reflects the nature of real applications and permits extension of the original abstract workflow (in case of failure); (ii) a novel agent-based protocol able to find satisfying solutions for this problem in real time to allow restriction and/or relaxation within the original workflow; (iii) a hybrid architecture of service-oriented computing and multi-agent systems for implementing Abstract Web service, Information analysis, and User agents. Experiments are presented to find solutions that can be executed within a feasible time and space.

Scalable multi-agent learning algorithms to determine winners in combinatorial double auctions

Many complex decision problems in the real world are very difficult to solve due to computational complexity. The winner determination problem (WDP) in combinatorial double auctions is one example of such complex problems. Although it allows buyers and sellers to submit bids and trade goods conveniently, the WDP in combinatorial double auctions is notoriously difficult to solve from computation point of view. It relies on the development of an effective mechanism to determine the winners. Multi-agent systems (MAS) provide an approach in which several agents attempt, through their interactions, to jointly solve a problem. An important issue in MAS is the design of multi-agent learning algorithms. In this paper, we will study the development of scalable multi-agent learning algorithms for solving the WDP in combinatorial double auctions. Instead of finding the exact solution, we will set up a fictitious market based on MAS architecture and develop multi-agent learning algorithms to reduce the computational complexity in solving the WDP of combinatorial double auctions. In the fictitious market, each buyer, each seller and the mediator is modeled by an agent. The issue is to develop learning algorithms for all the agents in the system to collectively solve the WDP in combinatorial double auctions. In this paper, we adopt a Lagrangian relaxation approach and a subgradient method to develop efficient multi-agent learning algorithms for solving the WDP in combinatorial double auctions. The effectiveness of the proposed multi-agent learning algorithms is also demonstrated by numerical examples.

A multi-agent architecture for multi-product supplier selection in consideration of the synergy between products

Supplier selection is an important task in purchasing. The performance of a supply chain depends on the selection of the right suppliers to provide the right materials or services at the right price and right time. Most of the research on supplier evaluation and selection assumes that products are procured independently. However, in reality, it is common for a purchasing company to procure a bundle of products together. In this regard, synergy could exist between products and hence affect the final choice of suppliers. It is therefore necessary for the purchasing company to incorporate the synergy between products in supplier selection. This paper presents a multi-agent system (MAS) architecture for multi-product supplier selection in consideration of the synergy between products. A three-phase supplier selection model is proposed to support multi-product procurement in consideration of the synergy between products. The three phases are, namely, product synergy determination phase, supplier pre-selection phase and negotiation-based final selection phase. The MAS is equipped with various types of autonomous function agents and different agent interaction protocols to effect the functioning of this three-phase multi-product supplier selection model.

Leader-Based Optimal Coordination Control for the Consensus Problem of Multiagent Differential Games via Fuzzy Adaptive Dynamic Programming

In this paper, a new on-line scheme is presented to design the optimal coordination control for the consensus problem of multi-agent differential games by fuzzy adaptive dynamic programming (FADP), which brings together game theory, generalized fuzzy hyperbolic model (GFHM) and adaptive dynamic programming. In general, the optimal coordination control for multi-agent differential games is the solution of the coupled Hamilton-Jacobi (HJ) equations. Here, for the first time, GFHMs are used to approximate the solution (value functions) of the coupled HJ equations, based on policy iteration (PI) algorithm. Namely, for each agent, GFHM is used to capture the mapping between the local consensus error and local value function. Since our scheme uses the single-network rchitecture for each agent (which eliminates the action network model compared with dual-network architecture), it is a more reasonable architecture for multi-agent systems. Furthermore, the approximation solution is utilized to obtain the optimal coordination controls. Finally, we give the stability analysis for our scheme, and prove the weight estimation error and the local consensus error are uniformly ultimately bounded. Further, the control node trajectory is proven to be cooperative uniformly ultimately bounded.

Improving the Quality of Information in Strategic Scanning System Network: Approach Based on Cooperative Multi-Agent System

Integrating Business Intelligence (BI) processes in an information system requires a form of strategic scanning system for which the information is the main source of efficiency and decision support. A process of strategic scanning system network is primarily a cooperative approach to sharing knowledge that actors are producers of information. The dynamics of the actor’s interactions allow gradual building of shared knowledge. This paper proposes Multi Agent System (MAS) architecture which facilitates the integration of a process of strategic scanning system network in the information system, to emerge relevant information from simple information while ensuring the quality and safety information . In particular, this approach is geared towards supporting system properties specially focused on cooperative multi-agent system. It gives finally an overview of implementation of a prototype of the proposed solution limited for the moment to the integration of processes most used in the majority of information systems.

Developing A Multi-Agent System in JADE for Information Management in Educational Competence Domains

Significant researches concerning multi-agent systems for information management have been conducted in recent years. Interest in multi-agent systems is rising because there are a lot of benefits that can be associated with their usage. Development of multi-agent system architectures, that facilitate information management, is an important research challenge that faces advancement in the management information systems area in the form of message passing technologies. The challenges associated with information management can be classified into three general categories: acquisition, organization and distribution. A management information system includes a series of processes that an individual (software agent) has to accomplish. Considering these processes, analysis of the information management has led to identification of several sets of such processes. By analyzing the previous research conducted in this area, it is determined that so far there haven’t been many studies about information management development approaches based on multi-agent systems platform. The paper presents a multi-agent system that is designed to support the management of information about graduates of one or more educational institutes such as high school, university, masters and doctoral degree. We developed and implemented a multi-agent system for information management using the JADE platform. If the data is located in distributed execution environments, then the idea of using mobile agents allows the improvement of the system's performance. The multi-agents system presented in the paper is a distributed information management system based on the use of mobile agents, who receive queries from the system user and who, visiting the educational institutes databases, where this information can be found, transmit the interrogation results and then, a master agent processes these results based on rule sets implemented in the JADE platform. The mobility of the agent is defined by using an approach based on both the quality attributes specified for the multi-agent architecture and on the execution environments of the multi-agent system. This paper presents a distributed management model based on mobile agents in JADE. The model includes a distributed multi-agent system that is responsible for its management. Solving an information management problem requires a lot of tasks. The paper presents the results of a simulation of the multi-agent system operating on behalf of a user, management tasks and management information for some persons. Particularly, this work is focused on describing the designed multi-agent system architecture in JADE. This multi-agent system can be used by an employer for an interview in order to find if a potential candidate has competence in your job description (domain of competence).

Dynamic Healthcare Interface for Patients

Abstract Canadian healthcare is a fundamental part of society. Challenges such as the aging baby boomer generation require the healthcare industry to meet higher demands while using fewer resources. Computer systems designed to record and report physical health properties of an individual personcan be used in part to accomplish this task. In this paper, we present the architecture of a hypothetical multi-agent system designed to provide healthcare information about specific patients through continuous monitoring. The resulting data from the system is accessible by the patient to whom it belongs as well as his or her healthcare professional. Furthermore, the proposed system utilizes an adaptive user interface for the purpose of improving the overall experience for users with poor vision or motor skills. Specifically, we focus on the implementation of several of the key components involved in the adaptive user interface: learning component and the user model. To demonstrate the feasibility of the implementation two scenarios are provided. We conclude with several possible future directions for this research.

Ensuring Security, Confidentiality and Fine-Grained Data Access Control of Cloud Data Storage Implementation Environment

With the development of cloud computing, the mutual understandability among distributed data access control has become an important issue in the security field of cloud computing. To ensure security, confidentiality and fine-grained data access control of Cloud Data Storage (CDS) environment, we proposed Multi-Agent System (MAS) architecture. This architecture consists of two agents: Cloud Service Provider Agent (CSPA) and Cloud Data Confidentiality Agent (CDConA). CSPA provides a graphical interface to the cloud user that facilitates the access to the services offered by the system. CDConA provides each cloud user by definition and enforcement expressive and flexible access structure as a logic formula over cloud data file attributes. This new access control is named as Formula-Based Cloud Data Access Control (FCDAC). Our proposed FCDAC based on MAS architecture consists of four layers: interface layer, existing access control layer, proposed FCDAC layer and CDS layer as well as four types of entities of Cloud Service Provider (CSP), cloud users, knowledge base and confidentiality policy roles. FCDAC, it’s an access policy determined by our MAS architecture, not by the CSPs. A prototype of our proposed FCDAC scheme is implemented using the Java Agent Development Framework Security (JADE-S). Our results in the practical scenario defined formally in this paper, show the Round Trip Time (RTT) for an agent to travel in our system and measured by the times required for an agent to travel around different number of cloud users before and after implementing FCDAC.

A Distributed Multiagent System Architecture for Body Area Networks Applied to Healthcare Monitoring

In the last years the area of health monitoring has grown significantly, attracting the attention of both academia and commercial sectors. At the same time, the availability of new biomedical sensors and suitable network protocols has led to the appearance of a new generation of wireless sensor networks, the so-called wireless body area networks. Nowadays, these networks are routinely used for continuous monitoring of vital parameters, movement, and the surrounding environment of people, but the large volume of data generated in different locations represents a major obstacle for the appropriate design, development, and deployment of more elaborated intelligent systems. In this context, we present an open and distributed architecture based on a multiagent system for recognizing human movements, identifying human postures, and detecting harmful activities. The proposed system evolved from a single node for fall detection to a multisensor hardware solution capable of identifying unhampered falls and analyzing the users' movement. The experiments carried out contemplate two different scenarios and demonstrate the accuracy of our proposal as a real distributed movement monitoring and accident detection system. Moreover, we also characterize its performance, enabling future analyses and comparisons with similar approaches.

Bounded Hybrid Connectivity Control of Networked Multiagent Systems

Connectivity refers to the problem that the initial information flow between a group of agents is required to be preserved for all time in order to achieve a given set of system- level objectives. This paper focuses on a new connectivity control architecture for networked multiagent systems based on hybrid protocols. Specifically, for a group of agents subject to -disk proximity graphs, we consider the consensus problem while preserving connectedness with a priori given bounds on the control inputs. The bounds on the control inputs are shown neither to depend on potential functions nor system states. Instead the bounds are user selected continuous functions. Using the proposed framework, we show that the maximum distance among neighboring agents strictly decreases, and hence, the connectivity problem is solved while satisfying the consensus objective. Illustrative numerical examples are provided to demon- strate the efficacy of the proposed bounded hybrid connectivity control architecture.

A hybrid multi-agent negotiation protocol supporting agent mobility in virtual enterprises

It is a growing trend for supply chain members to collaborate in a virtual enterprise (VE). As VE members are usually geographically dispersed and they have to cooperate and negotiate to achieve mutual agreements, the distributive multi-agent systems (MAS) are being increasingly adopted for VE implementation. To cope with the flexibility requirements of VE, a new MAS architecture is proposed in this paper. In this MAS, the VE initiator can be represented by either stationary or mobile agents to negotiate with VE partners. As there is not a mobile agent-based negotiation scheme considering both the negotiation effectiveness and system security, a hybrid multi-agent negotiation protocol is established in this paper to tackle this problem. This hybrid protocol incorporates both the stationary and mobile agent negotiation phases to compose a more efficient and successful multilateral agent interaction regulation. In this negotiation process, mobile agent-based negotiation is first initiated, it will then switch to stationary agent-based negotiation when mobile agent migration is rejected or interaction is blocked in the remote host. Besides, the ontology-based approach is adopted in the MAS and an embedding ontology operation protocol is established to refine the knowledge expression pattern in the agent negotiation process. The validity and efficiency of the protocol are verified through the execution of a hypothetical VE negotiation case.

Reactive Scheduling of a Decentralized Multi-Objective Material Transportation Tasks in a Dynamic Job Shop Manufacturing System

The increasingly challenging and dynamic nature of manufacturing industry has driven organizations to enhance their system efficiency. One of the most important aspects in manufacturing plant is the Material Transportation System (MTS). In order to address dynamic factors, MTS need to be equipped with rescheduling capability. This paper focuses on reactive transportation task assignment to a fleet of autonomous Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs). This paper proposes a Mixed Integer Programming method to reschedule transportation tasks for a non-disruptive job shop manufacturing system based on Multi Agent System (MAS) architecture. The result shows that proposed rescheduling method is able to outperform conventional method significantly.

Information Security Approach in Open Distributed Multi-Agent Virtual Learning Environment

This paper presented the main information, security problems and threats in open multi-agent distributed e-learning information systems and Proposed various approaches to solve information security attacks in virtual learning environment using service oriented architecture which based on multi-agent information systems architecture, the solution on the multi-agent learning information system implementation based on the implementation of two types of systems the first system with the centralized mobile agent information security management and the second system with decentralized mobile agents security management, and proposed the migration behaviour simulation for their active software components (software agents).

Designing a Multi Agent System Architecture for IT Governance Platform

This paper presents a multi-agents architecture which facilitates the integration of three major IT governance frameworks: COBIT5, ITIL V3 and ISO/IEC27002, to optimize the construction of a distributed system. This architecture proposes a new and easier method to develop a distributed multi agents system, where agents involved in this system can communicate in a distributed way thanks to functionalities offered by the system. It gives finally an overview of implementation of a prototype of the proposed solution limited for the moment to integration of processes most used in the majority of information systems.

Multiagent System Architecture for Short-term Operation of Integrated Microgrids

The forthcoming smart grids are comprised of integrated microgrids operating in grid-connected and isolated mode with local generation, storage and demand response (DR) programs. The proposed model is based on three successive complementary steps for power transaction in the market environment. The first step is characterized as a microgrid's internal market; the second concerns negotiations between distinct interconnected microgrids; and finally, the third refers to the actual electricity market. The proposed approach is modeled and tested using a MAS framework directed to the study of the smart grids environment, including the simulation of electricity markets. This is achieved through the integration of the proposed approach with the MASGriP (Multi-Agent Smart Grid Platform) system.

An Agent-based mTest and mAssessment Service Delivery Platform

Within this paper, an InfoStation-based multiagent architecture is presented, which provides the infr astructure to support the delivery of contextualised mobile assessments in the form of mTests, which could be utilised to enhance more traditional localised educational practices or indeed to provide additional tools to support distance learning. The utilisation of a multi-agent system architecture, incorporating the personal mobile devices of learners, is described, building on the work presented in [1-3]. The main architectural components within the system are discussed, detailing the functionality required in delivering effective assessments and feedback to learners. As well as this, the continuing client-side developments, including the current research geared towards the incorporation of HTML5 is detailed. Finally, the system functionality required for effective service management by educators is detailed.

A fuzzy system approach to multilateral automated negotiation in B2C e-commerce

Software agents in e-commerce systems are assigned to the participants. Buyer and supplier agents into multi-agent system architecture of the e-commerce system negotiate with others through an automated negotiation mechanism. In this study, an automated negotiation to interact between buyer and supplier and attain agreement for both is presented. A fuzzy inference system was used to automate negotiation process and consider two effective factors in the negotiation process: requirements and preferences. Requirements are qualitative or quantitative values which the participants assign to the issues of negotiation. Preferences of the participants are priorities assigned by them to issues. These values express an importance measure of issues from a participant perspective. Proposed model applies different fuzzy inference system (FIS) schemes for qualitative and quantitative negotiation issues to enhance the satisfaction level of the buyer and supplier. The FISs infer based on the preferences and requirements of both parties. Additionally, analytic hierarchy process was used to get preferences of the issues. In this proposal, mediator uses issue trade-offs strategy in which multiple issues are traded-offs against one another. The model applies a fuzzy system approach to make trade-offs.

Robust design of multi-agent system interactions: A testing approach based on pattern matching

The definition of protocols between agents is not enough for guaranteeing the absence of undesirable communication in organizations and the presence of desirable ones in large multi-agent systems (MASs). This is a consequence of the complex system nature of MASs, which cause sophisticated behaviors to arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions among the independent agents composing them. With this motivation, this paper presents an approach for testing communication in MAS architectures. In this approach, designers are not only recommended to specify the desired communication protocols, but also the undesired patterns and organization structures in the agents’ communications, allowing designers to define robust communication structures. For this purpose, this work presents (1) a language to define such patterns; (2) a set of already defined desired and undesired patterns which usually appear in general MASs; (3) a tool that allows developers to automatically detect these patterns in logs of MAS executions; and (4) a guideline that takes developers through the testing of the communications in MASs. The current approach is experienced with a case study, and the results show that the application of the current approach and the suppression of detected undesired patterns improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the corresponding MAS.

Design of A Multi-Agent System Architecture for the Scrum Methodology

The objective of this paper is to design a multi -agent system architecture for the Sc rum methodology. Scrum is an iterative, incremental framework for software development which is flexible, adaptable and highly productive. An agent is a system situated within and a part of an environment that senses the environment and acts on it, over time, in pursuit of its own agenda and so as to effect what it senses in the future (Franklin and Graesser, 1996). To our knowledge, this is first attempt to include software agents in the Scrum framework. Furthermore, our design covers all the stages of sof tware development. Alternative approaches were only restricted to the analysis and design phases. This Multi -Agent System (MAS) Architecture for Scrum acts as a design blueprint and a baseline architecture that can be realised into a physical implementation by using an appropriate agent development framework. The development of an experimental prototype for the proposed MAS Architecture is in progress. It is expected that this tool will provide support to the development team who will no longer be expected to report, update and manage non-core activities daily.

Retraction Note: A multi-agent architectural solution for coherent distributed reconfigurations of function blocks

The paper deals with distributed Multi-Agent Reconfigurable Embedded Control Systems following the International Industrial Standard IEC61499 in which a Function Block (abbreviated by FB) is an event-triggered software component owning data and a control application is a network of distributed blocks that should satisfy functional and temporal properties according to user requirements. We define an architecture of reconfigurable multi-agent systems in which a Reconfiguration Agent is affected to each device of the execution environment to apply local reconfigurations, and a Coordination Agent is proposed for coordinations between devices in order to guarantee safe and adequate distributed reconfigurations. A Communication Protocol is proposed to handle coordinations between agents by using well-defined Coordination Matrices. We specify both reconfiguration agents to be modelled by nested state machines, and the Coordination Agent according to the formalism Net Condition-Event Systems (Abbreviated by NCES) which is an extension of Petri nets. To validate the whole architecture, we check by applying the model checker SESA in each device functional and temporal properties to be described according to the temporal logic “Computation Tree Logic”. We have also to check all possible coordinations between devices by verifying that whenever a reconfiguration is applied in a device, the Coordination Agent and other concerned devices react as described in user requirements. We present a tool applying simulations of this distributed architecture in order to check interactions and reactivities of agents. The paper’s contributions are applied to two Benchmark Production Systems available in our research laboratory.