The Technical Foundation of a Multi‐Agent System
Jie Zhang · 2017
A multi-agent system (MAS) is an intelligent society composed by a number of agents, which can solve a distributed problem. This chapter introduces various different extensions of agent structures, such as thinking agent, reaction agent and hybrid agent, by analyzing the basic structure of an agent. It analyzes the environmental characteristics of a MAS from the macro level. The chapter also discusses MAS structures, modeling methods, and communication and communication protocols, which provides a foundation for developing a MAS system, collaborating among agents, and solving the planning and control problems in a manufacturing production system. The structure of the existing multi-agent system can be classified into three major classes: hierarchical structure, federal structure and fully autonomous structure. The behavior of communication and interaction among agents in a MAS is an important manifestation of the sociality of an agent; it is a way for an agent to interact with the external environment.