In this course, the basic concepts and characteristics of agents will be
addressed, and a systematic compositional design methodology for multi-agent
systems will be presented.
DETAILED COURSE CONTENTS
========================
In today's complex business processes, most often information,
knowledge and other resources are inherently distributed. Distributed
factory and office automation, computer supported co-operative work,
intelligent information management, large scale transaction
processing, and wide-area networking mandate flexible, distributed and
scaleable IT support. Interaction and decentralised control are of
crucial importance to new emerging phenomena such as electronic
commerce, in which agent technology, the World Wide Web and Internet
are indispensable ingredients.
Agents are autonomous, conceptual entities capable of re-actively
and/or pro-actively influencing their dynamic environment. This
environment almost necessarily includes other agents.
The compositional system development method DESIRE explicitly models
such autonomous entities, their environment, and their interaction,
during different phases of design. Different types of reasoning (such
as strategic and reflective reasoning) and different forms of
co-operation are modelled and specified from the start.
Agent models in DESIRE
======================
In DESIRE, multi-agent systems are modelled and
specified as compositional systems: agents are modelled as interacting
complex components. In this course, the constructs needed to model
flexible, adaptive behaviour are introduced and applied to a number of
case studies.
DESIRE adheres to many of the principles of modern approaches to
system design. Information hiding, for example, is of utmost
importance in the design of compositional architectures: the level of
abstraction at which a component is defined determines which
information is 'visible' to other components at that level. Explicit
(declarative) representation of control knowledge within components is
expressed in terms of the knowledge that is 'known' at the related
level within a composition. This control knowledge can specify both
parallel and sequential activation of components and information flow,
and provides a means to model event-driven and decentralised control.
Reuse of generic models and instantiated components is inherent to the
modelling approach. Generic models for different types of agents and
tasks provide a means to structure system design. Such models support
task analysis and conceptual modelling. Domain specific knowledge is
added to instantiate generic components; this knowledge may be
represented in many ways, depending on the application at hand, and
reused when appropriate.
Aim of the course
=================
In this course, participants learn to construct transparent,
structured conceptual designs of multi-agent systems, to specify
conceptual and detailed designs, and to transform specifications into
implementations. In addition, participants learn to use graphical
tools designed to support modelling, specification, implementation and
testing of multi-agent systems.
Participants are expected to be interested in the design and
development of multi-agent systems, and to have had some experience in
the development of information systems and/or knowledge-based systems.
The compositional development method DESIRE
===========================================
DESIRE is the result of ten years of research by the Artificial
Intelligence Group at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in interaction
with industry. It has been tested in various domains of application,
such as distributed project co-ordination and agenda scheduling,
co-operative information acquisition, chemical process control,
negotiation for energy load balancing, distributed diagnosis and
repair tasks, and design. The 15 members of the Artificial
Intelligence Group still focus their research on further development
of the DESIRE method and support, its logical foundation, and
applications. Dissemination of research results is one of the aims of
the group. Courses are a means to this end. From 1996 the DESIRE
method is the basis of a series of annual courses.
Staff
=====
The course will be given by prof.dr. J. Treur,
dr. F.M.T. Brazier, dr. C.M. Jonker, drs. P.A.T. van Eck, drs. W. de
Vries and drs. W.C.A. Wijngaards, supported by the scientific
programmers drs. F. Cornelissen and drs. L. van der Mey.
Course date and location
========================
The course will be held at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The
Netherlands, from October 21 to October 27, 1998. Course material and
instructions are in English.
Programme
=========
To acquire knowledge and skills in modelling and specifying
multi-agent systems using the method DESIRE, active participation is
required. For each of the five days the programme includes lectures,
working sessions and computer-supported practical sessions. The main
themes addressed in the programme are:
Wednesday October 21: Conceptual design and basic agent
behaviour. Introduction to multi-agent systems. Design principles,
such as compositionality, re-use, information and process
hiding. Reactive and pro-active agent behaviour.
Practical session: a simple process control agent.
Thursday October 22: Detailed design; process composition and knowledge
composition. Social agent behaviour. Broker agents.
Practical session: simulation of pro-active and re-active behaviour.
Friday October 23: Detailed design; interaction and dynamics. Autonomy
and control of behaviour. Generic models of agents.
Practical session: Personal Assistant agent
Monday October 26: Informational and motivational agents. Knowledge and
reasoning capabilities. agents with explicit beliefs, desires and
intentions. Reflective agents.
Practical session: co-operative information gathering agents.
Tuesday October 27: Reusable models and applications. Models for
monitoring diagnosis and control. Co-operation and project
co-ordination. Negotiating agents. Societies of agents.
Practical session: negotiating agents.
Course fee and registration
===========================
The course fee is NLG 2500 (NLG 1 is approximately USD 0.48 as of
March, 1998). The form should be returned, and the course fee
received, before October 1, 1998. A 50% reduction is available for a
restricted number of Ph.D. students. The total number of participants
is limited. The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam reserves the right to
cancel or postpone the course.
Cancellation regulation
=======================
If registration is cancelled before October 1, the course fee may be
refunded. After October 1, no reimbursement is possible.
For more information, contact:
dr. C.M. Jonker
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
De Boelelaan 1081a
1081 HV Amsterdam
The Netherlands
tel: +31 20 44 47743 / +31 20 44 47700
fax: +31 20 44 47653
email: jonker@cs.vu.nl
More information can be found at the course's Web-site:
http://www.cs.vu.nl/~wai/demas/
DESIGN OF INTELLIGENT MULTI-AGENT SYSTEMS
=========================================
5-day course
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
October 21-27, 1998
REGISTRATION FORM
=================
Please print out the following form, complete
it and return it to:
dr. C.M. Jonker
Artificial Intelligence Group
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
De Boelelaan 1081a
1081 HV Amsterdam
The Netherlands
tel: +31 20 44 47743 / +31 20 44 47700
fax: +31 20 44 47653
It is also possible to send an email with corresponding contents to
jonker@cs.vu.nl, prior to sending a hard copy of the form with your signature.
Name: _______________________________________________________________
Affiliation: _______________________________________________________________
Address: _______________________________________________________________
Postal code: _______________________________________________________________
City: _______________________________________________________________
Country: _______________________________________________________________
Telephone: _______________________________________________________________
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E-mail: _______________________________________________________________
Dietary
restrictions: _______________________________________________________________
Send invoice to: ___ address above ___ other:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
The course fee (NLG 2500) will be paid within three weeks after receipt of the
invoice. I, the undersigned, agree to the given cancellation regulation.
Date: _____________________ Signature: ______________________
See also: http://www.cs.vu.nl/~wai/demas/