Can autonomous software agents that are distributed over a computer network collaborate effectively? Both empirical evidence and theory suggest that they can. Moreover, there seem to be simple rules for designing problem-solving Ž organizations in which collaboration among such agents is automatic and scale-effective adding agents tends to improve . solution-quality; adding computers tends to i...

The study of biological systems has inspired the development of a large number of neural network architectures and robotic implementations. Through both experimentation and simulation biological systems provides a means to understand the underlying mechanisms in living organisms while inspiring the development of robotic applications. Experimentation, in the form of data gathering (ethological ...

Autonomous multi-agent systems that are to coordinate must be designed according to models that accommodate such complex social behavior as compromise, negotiation, and altruism. In contrast to individually rational models, where each agent seeks to maximize its own welfare without regard for others, socially rational agents have interests beyond themselves. Such models require a new type of ut...

Currently there is considerable interest in understanding on the one hand, how various animal aggregations such as fish schools, bird flocks, deer herds, etc. coordinate their collective motions to perform useful tasks and on the other, how groups of mobile autonomous agents such as AUV schools, UAV flocks, etc., might be instructed to cooperate in a similar manner [1]. In this talk we will wil...

A major bottleneck in the realization of autonomous robotic agents performing complex manipulation tasks are the requirements that these tasks impose onto perception mechanisms. There is a strong need to scale robot perception capabilities along two dimensions: First, the variations of appearances and perceptual properties that real-world objects exhibit. Second, the variety of perceptual tasks...

Flexibility will be one of the key features in future manufacturing systems because the environments that surround manufacturing systems are rapidly changing from day to day. To satisfy this requirement, the hierarchical systems used in previous manufacturing systems are not enough because they cannot deal effectively with unexpected situations. Moreover, a lot of software modules have to be mo...

This paper presents the MIC∗ model of autonomous agents deployment environment. A practical social software engineering framework based on AGR is also presented to show how MIC∗ is used to develop MAS applications.

This report presents a prototype architecture of a defense mechanism for computer systems. The intrusion detecl.ion problem is introduced and some of the key aspects of any solution are explained. Standard intrusion deteclion systems are built as a single monolithic module. A finer-grained approach is proposed, where small, independent agents monitor the system. TILcse agents are taught how to ...

Place learning and exploration in autonomous agents is important for understanding and building intelligent agents. Experimental and computational studies from the areas of psychology, computer science and neuroscience have achieved great successes. This thesis provides a theoretical investigation into three major problems in place learning and exploration, namely, localization, mapping, and ac...

A negotiation mechanisms is presented for a real world problem of task distribution among a set of autonomous computational agents within a business process. The mechanism formally represents the protocol of agent interactions, the set of negotiation issues which agents negotiate over and the tactical and strategic reasoning procedures involved in negotiation decision making of an agent. Prelim...