Convergence and Knowledge Processing in Multi-Agent Systems (eBook)

Preface 5
Contents 7
List of Figures 10
List of Tables 12
Acronyms 14
Introduction 15
1.1 Background to the Research 16
1.2 Approach 16
1.3 Contributions 17
1.4 Reader’s Guide to the Book 18
Research Issues 19
2.1 Multi-agent Systems 19
2.2 Agent-based Modelling 20
2.3 An Ecosystem Perspective of Multi-agent Systems 21
2.4 Convergence Issues 22
2.5 Interaction and Knowledge Exchange 23
Stability of Multi-agent Systems 26
3.1 Introduction 26
3.2 Background 27
3.3 Stability in Games 29
3.4 Experiments 35
3.5 Conclusion 69
The Emergence of Knowledge Exchange: An Agent- based Model of a Software Market 71
4.1 Introduction 71
4.2 Digital Business Ecosystem 72
4.3 Background 74
4.4 An Agent-based Model of the DBE 77
4.5 Analysis of the Model 84
4.6 Concluding Remarks 91
Collaborative Query Expansion 93
5.1 Introduction 93
5.2 Term Value 97
5.3 Implementation 98
5.4 Evaluation 100
5.5 Introducing User Collaboration for Query Expansion 106
5.6 Limitations and FutureWork 108
5.7 Conclusions 110
Micro-economic Control of Distributed Intelligent Personal Assistants 111
6.1 Stable Strategies 111
6.2 Network of Intelligent Personal Assistants 113
6.3 Finding a Stable Strategy 119
6.4 Conclusion 126
Conclusions and FutureWork 128
7.1 Contributions 128
7.2 Future Directions 130
7.3 Concluding Remarks 132
The EEII Project 133
Statistical Analysis 135
B.1 Statistical Hypothesis Testing 135
B.2 Tests for Showing That Two Samples Come from the Same Distribution 136
Methodology: Evolutionary Algorithms 139
References 141
Index 151