EEL 5937 - Multi Agent Systems

Spring 2006

Instructor: Dr. Lotzi B?l?ni
Office: ENGR I - 444
Phone: 407-823-2320
E-mail: lboloni@cpe.ucf.edu
Web Site: http://www.cs.ucf.edu/~lboloni/Teaching/EEL5937_2006
The assignments and the other announcements will be posted on the course web site
Classroom: ENGR-I 386A
Class Hours: Tuesday, Thursday 9:00 - 10:15
Office Hours: Tuesday, Thursday 10:30 - 12:00
Pre-requisites: This course is suitable for graduate or advanced undergraduate students. The only prerequisite is Java programming knowledge. Students from computer engineering, computer science,electrical engineering and related fields are all welcome.
Knowledge of articifial intelligence, knowledge based or expert systems is NOT required. But if you have this kind of background, you are more than welcome to use it in the class project.
Recommended readings: Michael Wooldridge: An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems
FEEDS video stream: Video stream page
Suggested projects: Projects page
Grading: Homework: 20 %
Project: 60 %
Final Exam: 20 %
Core development: up to 20% additional points
Standard 90/80/70/60 scale will be used for final grades (curved if necessary)
Teaching assistant: TBD
Mailing list: TBD

Goto: Links, Syllabus, Grades


Syllabus

Date
Topic
Lecture Notes, Readings, Homeworks
Jan 10
Introduction
[slides] Introduction.ppt
Jan 12
What makes an agent?
[slides] AgentDefinition.ppt
[reading] Stan Franklin and Art Graesser: Is it an Agent, or just a Program?: A Taxonomy for Autonomous Agents
Jan 17.
Applications.
Environments.
[slides] Environments.ppt
[reading] Agent Technology: Computing as Interaction: A Roadmap for Agent-Based Computing
Jan 24.
Agent models.
[slides] Agent models
Jan 26.
Intentional models for agents
[slides] Intentional models
[reading] Panel discussion: BDI agents
[reading] Formal model of the Belief-Desire-Intension model (warning: heavy logic inside!!!)
Homework 1: Definitions, applications, BDI
Jan 31.
Agent knowledgebases. Ontologies. [slides] Ontologies.ppt
[slides] OWLTheWebOntologyLanguage.pdf
[reading] A Practical Guide To Building OWL Ontologies Using Protege-OWL
Feb 2.
Project choices and teams finalized
Ontologies (cont'd)

Feb. 7
Interagent communication.
Speech acts. Agent communication languages.
[slides] AgentCommunication.ppt
Feb. 9
Agent communication examples.
Homework 1 due
Feb. 14
Multi-agent systems
Introduction, utilities, rational behavior
Dominant strategies, Nash equilibria, Prisoner's dilemma
[slides] wooldridge_multiagent_interactions.pdf
Feb. 16
Reaching agreements, negotiation, auction models
[slides] wooldridge_reaching_agreements.pdf
Feb. 21
Negotiation examples: Zeuthen strategy for car buying
Multi-issue negotiation for convoy formation
[reading] Automated negotiation: prospects, methods and challenges
Febr. 23
Collaboration, benevolence, contract net

[slides] wooldridge_working_together.pdf
Homework 2: Ontologies + Negotiation
Febr. 28


Mar. 2
TBD

Mar. 6
TDB

Mar. 9
Mobile agents
Strong mobility
[slides] MobileAgents.ppt
Readings:
Kotz, Gray: Mobile agents and the future of the internet
C. Harrison et al.: Mobile agents: are they a good idea?
Homework 2 due
Mar. 14
Spring break

Mar. 16
Spring break

Mar. 21
Weak mobility
[slides] WeakMobility.ppt
Mar. 23
Mutable agents
[slides] MutableAgents.ppt
Mar. 28

[slides] MutableAgents2.ppt
Mar. 30
Agent oriented programming
Agent development fitfalls
[slides] wooldridge_methodologies.pdf
(slides 1-37)
Apr. 4
-cont-

Apr. 6
Agent UML. Gaia.
[slides] AOP.ppt
Readings:
Wooldridge, Jennings, Kinny: The Gaia Methodology for Agent-Oriented Analysis and Design
Odell, Parunak, Bauer: Extending UML for Agents
Apr 11
Project Presentations (1)
Joakim Ekblad - Surveillance with agents
Brent Horine, Ghaith Haddad - Trading Agent Competition
Monir Yazgi
Apr. 13
Project Presentations (2)
Jimmy Secretan, Malachi Lawson - Reliable and Redundant Grid Data Backup Using Agents
Yi Luo - Cheating in auction protocols
Cameron Ackridge - Chess with agents
Daniel Barber - Extracting data from a Mini-MOUT for recognizing agent teamwork
Apr. 18
Project Presentations (3)
Chris Moriarty - Reliable and Redundant Grid Data Backup Using Agents
Nicolaos Peppas, Mohammad Ahmad Zubair, Haroon Shariff - Spectrum allocation
Derrick Babb - Agents in transportation planning
Asher DeVuyst - Real estate agent
Apr. 20 (Thursday)
Final exam (open book, open notes)

Grades:

Grades of homework 1

Grades of homework 2

Grades of project, final exam and final grade

Links: