Run-time selection of coordination mechanisms in multi-agent systems
Rachel A. Bourne, Cora B. Excelente-Toledo, Nicholas R. Jennings · ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) · 2000
. This paper presents a framework that enables autonomous agents to dynamically select the mechanism they employ in order to coordinate their inter-related activities. Adopting this framework means coordination mechanisms move from the realm of being imposed upon the system at design time, to something that the agents select at run-time in order to fit their prevailing circumstances and their current coordination needs. Empirical analysis is used to evaluate the effect of various design alternatives for the agent's decision making mechanisms and for the coordination mechanisms themselves. 1 INTRODUCTION Effective coordination is essential if autonomous agents are to achieve their goals in multiple agent systems. Such coordination is required to manage the various forms of dependency that naturally occur when the agents have inter-linked objectives, when they share a common environment, or when there are shared resources. To this end, a variety of mechanisms have been developed to addr...