Multi-Agent Systems and the Areas Related to It - Essay Example

Introduction: A gaming company has developed its software in VC++ and DirectX. The company would like to introduce aspects of DAI and agents in its next generation of games. In addition, the company has taken a strategic decision to develop games for the Internet, mobile devices (i.e. PDA) and 3G phones. In this technical report I shall briefly summarize the aspects of DAI and agents. Furthermore, I shall put forward my recommendations in light of the company’s strategic planning objectives. We can provide a direct interface to the hardware on the host system of our software by using the DirectX application program interface. This is achieved by removing the device-specific hardware dependencies, which were previously part of almost any software development effort. Moreover, DirectX performance capabilities are similar or equal to those provided in DOS but allows hardware to be fully utilized. Multi-agent systems (MAS) and the areas related to it: Multi-agent systems (MAS) are a set of agents that interact in a common environment. An agent is an entity with domain knowledge, goals and actions. Multi-agent systems deal with the construction of complex systems involving multiple agents and their coordination. A multi-agent system (MAS) is a distributed computing system with autonomous interacting intelligent agents that coordinate their actions so as to achieve its goal(s) jointly or competitively. Agent technologies are now being applied to the development of large-scale commercial and industrial software systems. Such systems are complex, involving hundreds, perhaps thousands of agents and there is a pressing need for system modeling techniques that permit their complexity to be effectively managed, along with principled methodologies to guide the process of system design. Without adequate techniques to support the design process, such systems will not be sufficiently reliable, maintainable or extensible, will be difficult to comprehend, and their elements will not be re-usable. The agents in a multi-agent system have several important characteristics; namely: Autonomy: the agents are at least partially autonomous. Local views: no agent has a full global view of the system, or the system is too complex for an agent to make practical use of such knowledge Decentralization: there is no one controlling agent A first classification that is useful is to divide agents into:- reactive agent - A reactive agent is not much more than an automaton that receives input, processes it and produces an output. deliberative agent - A deliberative agent in contrast should have an internal view of its environment and is able to follow its own plans. hybrid agent - A hybrid agent is a mixture of reactive and deliberative, that follows its own plans, but also sometimes directly reacts to external events without deliberation. A large number of scientific fields are related to kinetics and we are mainly interesting in the distributed system and artificial system 1-Artificial Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the study and art of making intelligent machines, particularly intelligent computer programs and how to make a computer do a thing that humans do. AI techniques include: Search; Knowledge; and Abstraction Kinetics calls into play a large number of concepts that are new to AI, for example, corporation, coordination and satisfaction. The difference between AI and kinetics is that with AI it is the individual that is intelligent, whereas with kinetics it is the organization that displays functionalities that can be characterized as intelligent. 2-Distributed System: The main goal of the distributed system is the carrying out of tasks by making the best use of physically distributed resources (for example, memory, processor, data managers). On the other hand, the system of kinetics is much more open. The multi-agent system takes an overview and summary of the problem of interaction between individual entities, considering the distributed system as being merely one possible application of this general concept. An agent can be implemented in the form of several processes without losing its individuality. Distributed Artificial Intelligence: Currently the industrial computer system is becoming more complex and includes a large number of subsystems. For this reason we are interested in DAI. We set out below the main reasons explaining why we need distributed activities intelligence: 1- Problems are physically distributed; 2- Problems are widely distributed and heterogeneous in functional terms; 3- The network forces us to take a distributed view; 4- The complexity of the problem dictates a local point of view; 5- Systems must be able to adapt to changes in the structure or the environment; and 6- Software engineering is moving toward design using the concept of autonomous interacting units. Gaming Playing: A heuristic techniques constitute a major area of AI research. A heuristic technique is useful in problem solving strategy. For example, checking to make sure that an unresponsive appliance is plugged in before assuming that it is broken or to castle in order to try and protect your king from capture in a chess game. For exploring machine intelligence it seems that games are good for two reasons: 1. They provide a structured task in which it is very easy to test the effectiveness; and 2. They don’t require expert consultation. Communication: In multi agent systems the communication is the base for interaction and social organization. Without it, the agent becomes isolated from the environment. The Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA) is a body for developing and setting computer software standards for heterogeneous and interacting agents and agent-based systems. The Knowledge Query and Manipulation Language, or KQML, is a language and protocol for communication among software agents and knowledge-based systems. However, the KQML has some drawbacks, namely: 1- Ambiguity and imprecision; 2- Useless and incoherent performatives; and 3- Missing performatives. Conclusion : Implementing the game in DIA and MAS is based on several techniques that should be taken into account. But the key role that has been observed in gaming is that most games are based on interaction and each game has its own way of interaction. The company decided to develop the game by using the tool DirectX and the software VC++. Additionally, the company is looking forward to implementing games in mobile devices in the future. For this reason, the company has decided to choose the DirectX and VC++ and is able to stick with its tools. I recommend that they stick with the DirectX and V++ program and introduce aspects of DAI and agents in their next generation of games and that they use FIPA for communication. Secondly, the company should use a language that can easily be implemented in different platforms such as PDA and also for online games. One such language is Java. Recently most mobile devices support Java therefore building a game using Java will give a very wide spectrum. In order to use Java the company will need to train its programmers. These criteria will add more costs to the company, however in the future it will be a very useful step and will provide a wide use for the developed game. Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_artificial_intelligence http://research.sun.com/people/vengerov/bookchapter.pdf Ferber, J., (1999). Multi-Agent Systems. London, Pearson Educational Limited, England. Kovach , P., (1998). The Awesome Power of Direct3D/DirectX. Greenwich Manning Publication. Luger, G., (2002), Artificial Intelligence, 4th edn, Pearson Educational Limited Rich, E. & Knight, K.,(1991). Artificial Intelligence, 2nd edn, McGraw-Hill, Singapore. Read More