COMP310: 2017-2018

Multi-Agent Systems

 

Administration

  1. •Resources (this page): Course Module Web Page

  2. •Syllabus: COMP310

  3. •Announcements: At lectures & on my teaching pages

  4. •Assessment: 100% exam

  5. •iTunes U: You can check out and subscribe to the module by visiting this link (opens iTunes).

  6. •Lecture Times:

  7. •Mon: 13.00 - 14.00 (SCTH-MR)

  8. •Wed: 11.00 - 12.00 (REN-LT7)

  9. •Thurs: 13.00 - 14.00 (ERB-ERT)

  10. •No Practical Labs

  11. •Assessment Weightings: 100% exam

Module Description

Aims:

  1. 1) To introduce the student to the concept of an agent and multi-agent systems, and the main applications for which they are appropriate;

  2. 2) To introduce the main issues surrounding the design of intelligent agents;

  3. 3) To introduce the main issues surrounding the design of a multi-agent society.

  4. 4) To introduce a contemporary platform for implementing agents and multi-agent systems

 

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the module, the student will be able to demonstrate:

  1. 1) Understand the notion of an agent, how agents are distinct from other software paradigms (eg objects) and understand the characteristics of applications that lend themselves to an agent-oriented solution;

  2. 2) Understand the key issues associated with constructing agents capable of intelligent autonomous action, and the main approaches taken to developing such agents;

  3. 3) Understand the key issues in designing societies of agents that can effectively cooperate in order to solve problems, including an understanding of the key types of multi-agent interactions possible in such systems

  4. 4) Understand the main application areas of agent-based solutions, and be able to develop a meaningful agent-based system using a contemporary agent development platform.

 

Approximate Syllabus:

  1. •Introduction: what is an agent?: agents and objects; agents and expert systems; agents and distributed systems; typical application areas for agent systems.

  2. •Intelligent Agents: the design of intelligent agents - reasoning agents (eg AgentO), agents as reactive systems (eg subsumption architecture); hybrid agents (eg PRS); layered agents (eg Interrap) a contemporary (Java-based) framework for programming agents (eg the Jack language, the JAM! system).

  3. •Multi-Agent Systems: Classifying multi-agent interactions - cooperative versus non-cooperative; zero-sum and other interactions; what is cooperation? how cooperation occurs - the Prisoner's dilemma and Axelrod's experiments; Interactions between self-interested agents: auctions & voting systems: negotiation; Interactions between benevolent agents: cooperative distributed problem solving (CDPS), partial global planning; coherence and coordination; Interaction languages and protocols: speech acts, KQML/KIF, the FIPA framework.

  4. •Advanced topics: One issue selected from the contemporary research literature, perhaps by guest lecturer..


Recommended Texts

  1. •An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems - Second Edition. Michael Wooldridge (Wiley, 2009)

  2. •Programming Multi-agent Systems in AgentSpeak Using Jason. Rafael H. Bordini, Jomi Fred Hubner and Michael Wooldridge (Wiley, 2007)

 

Lecture notes include material based on examples from all of the above texts.


Artwork Attribution

Many of the images in these notes have been used royalty free under a creative commons license, and include images from the following sources:

  1. •Alpha Stock Images - http://alphastockimages.com/

  2. •Pixabay - https://pixabay.com


Lecture Sets (pdf)

  1. •Lecture Notes (2017 - 2018 Revised)

  2. •What is an Agent

  3. •About the course: COMP310 Introduction  2018.pdf

  4. •Intelligent Agents: the design of intelligent agents

  5. •Introduction to Agents: COMP310 Chapter1 2018.pdf

  6. •Intelligent Agents: COMP310 Chapter2 2018.pdf

  7. •Deductive Reasoning Agents; COMP310 Chapter3 2018.pdf

  8. •Practical Reasoning Agents: COMP310 Chapter4 2018.pdf

  9. •AgentSpeak and Jason: COMP310 Chapter4a 2018.pdf

  10. •Reactive / Hybrid Agents: COMP310 Chapter5 2018.pdf

  11. •Multi-Agent Systems: societies and working together

  12. •Ontologies / Communicating: COMP310 Chapters6-7 2018.pdf

  13. •Working Together: COMP310 Chapter8 2018.pdf

  14. •Agent Interactions

  15. •Interactions: COMP310 Chapter11 2018.pdf

  16. •Group Decisions: COMP310 Chapter12 2018.pdf

  17. •Forming Coalitions: COMP310 Chapter13 2018.pdf

  18. •Allocating Scarce Resources: COMP310 Chapter14 2018.pdf

  19. •Bargaining: COMP310 Chapter15 2018.pdf

  20. •Arguing: COMP310 Chapter16 2018.pdf


Note that we do not cover material from Chapter’s 9, 10 & 17 from Mike’s Book in this module.


Furthermore, for EXAM 2017-18, there will be no questions asked on JASON or AgentSpeak.  This includes Chapter 4a and the JASON specific material that appears in Chapers6-7 (pp37-47) and Chapter 8 (pp17-31).


  1. •AgentSpeak & Jason Resources (pdf)

  2. •Source and Documentation for Jason

  3. •Programming Multi-Agent Systems in AgentSpeak Using Jason (pdf)

  4. •Source for AgentLink at the Jason SourceForge site

  5. •Chapter 4a - Factoral

  6. •Chapter4a-factoral.zip

  7. •Chapters 6-7 - TellRule

  8. •Chapters6-7-TellRule.zip

  9. •Chapter 8 - CNP

  10. •Chapter8-CNP.zip


Class Reading

Note, not all the papers will necessarily be available as pdfs from the web, but can be found in the library.  You may also need to be logged into a University machine to access them.


  1. •Intelligent Agents: the design of intelligent agents

  2. •Chapter 2:  “Is it an Agent, or Just a Program?: A Taxonomy for Autonomous Agents”, Stan Franklin and Art Graesser.

  3. •Chapter 3: “Agent Oriented Programming”,Yoav Shoham.

  4. •Chapter 4: “Plans and resource-bounded practical reasoning”, Michael E. Bratman, David J. Israel, Martha E. Pollack.

  5. •Chapter 4a: “AgentSpeak(L): BDI Agents Speak Out in a Logical Computable Language”, Anand S. Rao

  6. •Chapter 5: "A Robust Layered Control System for a Mobile Robot", Rodney A. Brooks.

  7. •Multi-Agent Systems: societies and working together

  8. •Chapter 7: “Agent Communication Languages: Rethinking the Principles”, Munindar P. Singh.

  9. •Chapter 8: “Distributed Problem Solving and Planning”,E.H.Durfee.

  10. •Chapter 9: “Modeling and design of Multi-Agent Systems”, D. Kinny and M. Georgeff.

  11. •Chapter 9: “Mobile Software Agents: An Overview”,V.A.Pham and A. Karmouch.

  12. •Chapter 10: “Agents that reduce work and information overload”, P.Maes.

  13. •Chapter 10: “Applications of Distributed Artificial Intelligence in Industry”, H.V.D.Parunak.

  14. •Agent Interactions

  15. •Chapter 12: “The computational difficulty of manipulating an election”, J.J. Bartholdi, C.A.Tovey and M.A.Trick.

  16. •Chapter 13:”Marginal contribution nets:A compact representation scheme for coalition games”, S. Ieong and Y. Shoham

  17. •Chapter 14: “Expressive commerce and its application to sourcing: How to conduct $35 billion of generalized combinatorial auctions”, T.Sandholm

  18. •Chapter 15: “Negotiation and cooperation in Multi- agent Environments”, S.Kraus

  19. •Chapter 16: “An introduction to argumentation semantics”, P. Baroni, M. Caminada and M. Giacomin


Screen Casts

These video files are served from the University of Liverpool’s streaming video service.  To access the video, you will need to log in using your MWS user account.

  1. •New Screen Casts (2017 - 2018)

  2. •What is an Agent

  3. •Lecture 1: 29th January 2018 (Intro and Chapter 1)

  4. •Lecture 2: 31st January 2018 (Chapter 1)

  5. •Intelligent Agents: the design of intelligent agents

  6. •Lecture 3: 1st February 2018 (Chapter 2)

  7. •Lecture 4: 5th February 2018 (Chapter 2)

  8. •Lecture 5: 7th February 2018 (Chapter 2)

  9. •Lecture 6: 8th February 2018 (Chapter 2)

  10. •Lecture 7: 12th February 2018 (Chapter 3)

  11. •Lecture 8: 14th February 2018 (Chapter 4)

  12. •Lecture 9: 15th February 2018 (Chapter 4)

  13. •Lecture 10: 19th February 2018 (Chapter 5)

  14. •Lecture 11: 21st February 2018 (Chapter 5)

  15. •Lecture 12: 26th February 2018 (Chapter 4a)

  16. •Lecture 13: 28th February 2018 (Chapter 4a)

  17. •Lecture 14: 1st March 2018 (Chapters 6-7)

  18. •Lecture 15: 5th March 2018 (Chapters 6-7)

  19. •Lecture 16: 7th March 2018 (Chapters 6-7)

  20. •Lecture 17: 8th March 2018 (Chapter 8)

  21. •Lecture 18: 12th March 2018 (Chapter 8)

  22. •Lecture 19: 14th March 2018 (Chapter 8)

  23. •Agent Interactions

  24. •Lecture 20: 15th March 2018 (Chapter 11)

  25. •Lecture 21: 9th April 2018 (Chapter 11)

  26. •Lecture 22: 11th April 2018 (Chapter 11)

  27. -Capture failed; see 2017 capture (Lecture 19)

  28. •Lecture 23: 12th April 2018 (Chapter 12)

  29. -Note capture failed prematurely.  Missing material is covered in the subsequent lecture (Lecture 24 below)

  30. •Lecture 24: 16th April 2018 (Chapter 12/13)

  31. •Lecture 25: 18th April 2018 (Chapter 13)

  32. -Capture failed; see 2017 capture (Lecture 21)

  33. •Lecture 26: 19th April 2018 (Chapter 13/14)

  34. •Lecture 27: 23rd April 2018 (Chapter 14)

  35. •Lecture 28: 26th April 2018 (Chapter 14)

  36. •Lecture 29: 30th April 2018 (Chapter 15)

  37. •Lecture 30: 2nd May 2018 (Chapter 15/16)

  38. •Lecture 31: 3rd May 2018 (Chapter 16)

  39. •Lecture 32: 5th May 2018 (Chapter 16 - Dialogues)

  40. •Revision Lecture 1: see 2017 27th April 2017

  41. •Revsion Lecture 2: 16th May 2018


  1. •Previous Year’s Screen Casts (2016 - 2017)

  2. •What is an Agent

  3. •Lecture 1: 30th January 2017 (Intro and Chapter 1)

  4. •Lecture 2: 1st February 2017 (Chapter 1 cont)

  5. •Intelligent Agents: the design of intelligent agents

  6. •Lecture 3: 2nd February 2017 (Chapter 2)

  7. •Lecture 4: 6th February 2017 (Chapter 2)

  8. •Lecture 5: 8th February 2017 (Chapter 2)

  9. •Lecture 6: 9th February 2017 (Chapter 3)

  10. •Lecture 7: 13th February 2017 (Chapter 4)

  11. •Lecture 8: 15th February 2017 (Chapter 4)

  12. •Lecture 9: 16th February 2017 (Chapter 5)

  13. •Lecture 9a: Steels Mars Rover demo (Chapter 5)

  14. •Lecture 10: 20th February 2017 (Chapter 5)

  15. •Multi-Agent Systems: societies and working together

  16. •Lecture 11: 22nd February 2017 (Chapter 6/7)

  17. •Lecture 12: 23rd February 2017 (Chapter 6/7)

  18. •Lecture 13: 27th February 2017 (Chapter 8)

  19. •Lecture 14: 1st March 2017 (Chapter 8)

  20. •Lecture 15: 2nd March 2017 (Chapter 8/10)

  21. •Lecture 16: 6th March 2017 (Chapter 10)

  22. •Agent Interactions

  23. •Lecture 17: 8th March 2017 (Chapter 11)

  24. •Lecture 18: 9th March 2017 (Chapter 11)

  25. •Lecture 19: 13th March 2017 (Chapter 11)

  26. •Lecture 20: 15th March 2017 (Chapter 12)

  27. -Capture failed; see 2015 capture (Lecture 21b & Lecture 22)

  28. -and also revision lecture: 4th May 2017

  29. •Lecture 21: 16th March 2017 (Chapter 13)

  30. •Lecture 22: 20th March 2017 (Chapter 13)

  31. •Lecture 23: 22nd March 2017 (Chapter 14)

  32. •Lecture 24: 23rd March 2017 (Chapter 14)

  33. •Lecture 25: 27th March 2017 (Chapter 15)

  34. •Lecture 26: 29th March 2017 (Chapter 15)

  35. •Lecture 27: 30th March 2017 (Chapter 16)

  36. •Revision Lecture 1: 27th April 2017

  37. •Revision Lecture 2: 4th May 2017

  38. •Revision Lecture 3: 11th May 2017


Mock Exam Papers

  1. •Mock Paper: COMP310-mock-exam.pdf - updated

  2. -Solutions: COMP310-Mock Exam Solutions.pdf

  3. •Problem Solving Paper: COMP310-Set2-Revision.pdf

  4. -Video Explanation: Revision Walkthrough (note that there are errors in this video with Question 2f, 3b and 4a)

  5. -Solutions: COMP310-201516 Solutions With Corrections.pdf (with the correct answers for Questions 2f, 3b and 4a)

  6. •Revision Paper (2017): COMP310-201617Revision.pdf

  7. -Solutions: COMP310-201617Revision Solutions.pdf

  8. -Video Explanation: Some of the questions are covered in the Revision lecture 3 from 11th May, 2016-17


Past Exam Papers

  1. •COMP310 Semester 2 2016-17

  2. •COMP310 Semester 2 2015-16

  3. •There is a typo in this paper (1f).  The state e6 is not included in the list of environments, but should be included.

  4. •COMP310 Semester 2 2014-15

  5. •COMP310 Semester 2 2013-14

  6. •COMP310 Semester 2 2012-13

  7. •There is a typo in this paper (2f).  The Beliefs B0 and Intention i should also include the proposition ArmEmpty..

  8. •COMP310 Semester 2 2011-12

  9. •COMP310 Semester 2 2010-11

  10. •COMP310 Semester 2 2009-10

  11. •COMP310 Semester 2 2008-09


Lab

  1. •Prisoner Lab