AMAK - A framework for developing robust and open adaptive multi-agent systems

Abstract

Multi-agent systems are commonly used in various research fields such as artificial intelligence, operational research, simulation, biology,.. However, this diversity often requires that the system and agents in it are created from scratch for each new research project. In addition to the fact that this forces the developers to code similar elements anew each time, this can introduce non-negligible biases (e.g. an information accessible to every agent which shouldn’t be or a scheduler executing twice due to a user interface design failure). To avoid this, we propose in this paper AMAK, a framework developed in Java™ to facilitate the design and development of a multi-agent system. First, we present the particularity of Adaptive Multi-Agent Systems. Secondly, a state of the art of the main tools and software aiming at facilitating the development of such systems is discussed. Then, we develop the architecture of the framework and the main features. The use of the framework is illustrated with an application for socio-technical ambient systems. And finally, we conclude with the perspectives of this work.