INTERACTION BETWEEN AGENTS IN ROUTINE, FAMILIAR AND UNFAMILIAR SITUATION

Abstract

A framework for designing a Multiagent System (MAS) in which agents are capable of coordinating their activities in routine, familiar, and unfamiliar situations is proposed. This framework is based on the Skills, Rules and Knowledge (S-R-K) taxonomy of Rasmussen. Thus, the proposed framework should allow agents to prefer the lower skill-based and rule-based levels rather than the higher knowledge-based level because it is generally easier to obtain and maintain coordination between agents in routine and familiar situations than in unfamiliar situations. The framework should also support each of the three levels because complex tasks combined with complex interactions require all levels. To permit agents to rely on low levels, a suggestion is developed: agents are provided with social laws so as to guarantee coordination between agents and minimize the need for calling a central coordinator or for engaging in negotiation which requires intense communication. Finally, implementation and experiments demonstrated, on some scenarios of urban traffic, the applicability of major concepts developed in this article.