The focus of the book is on completed implementations of agent-based software systems. Here, agent technology is considered broadly, starting from development of agent platforms, all the way through systems actually implemented. The covered topics also include lessons learned during implementation of agent platforms and the reflection on the process of development and application of agent-based systems. The book includes 10 chapters where interested reader can find discussion of important issues encountered during development of well-known agent platforms such as JADE and Jadex as well as some interesting experiences in developing a new platform that combines software agent and Web Services. Furthermore, the book shows readers several valuable examples of applications based on multi-agent systems including simulations, agents in autonomous negotiations and agents in public administration modelling. We believe that the book will prove useful to the researchers, professors and the practitioners in all disciplines including science and technology.

Multiagent systems consist of multiple autonomous entities having different information and/or diverging interests. The study of multiagent systems (MAS) focuses on systems in which many intelligent agents interact with each other. The agents are considered to be autonomous entities, such as software programs or robots. Their interactions can be either cooperative or selfish. That is, the agents can share a common goal (e.g. an ant colony), or they can pursue their own interests. Multi-agent systems can be used to solve problems that are difficult or impossible for an individual agent or a monolithic system to solve. Intelligence may include some methodic, functional, procedural approach, algorithmic search or reinforcement learning. Although there is considerable overlap, a multi-agent system is not always the same as an agent-based model (ABM). The goal of an ABM is to search for explanatory insight into the collective behavior of obeying simple rules, typically in natural systems, rather than in solving specific practical or engineering problems. Topics where multi-agent systems research may deliver an appropriate approach include online trading, disaster response, and modelling social structures. Multi-agent systems consist of agents and their environment. Typically multi-agent systems research refers to software agents. However, the agents in a multi-agent system could equally well be robots, humans or human teams. A multi-agent system may contain combined humanagent teams. Agent systems are open and extensible systems that allow for the deployment of autonomous and proactive software components. Multi-agent systems have been brought up and used in several application domains. This book, Multi-Agent Systems - Modeling, Control, Programming, Simulations and Applications, is intended to provide an emphasise on the multi-agent technology, products and industrial applications.

An Application Science For Multi-Agent Systems addresses the complexity of choosing which multi-agent control technologies are appropriate for a given problem domain or a given application. Without such knowledge, when faced with a new application domain, agent developers must rely on past experience and intuition to determine whether a multi-agent system is the right approach, and if so, how to structure the agents, how to decompose the problem, and how to coordinate the activities of the agents, and so forth. This unique collection of contributions, written by leading international researchers in the agent community, provides valuable insight into the issues of deciding which technique to apply and when it is appropriate to use them. The contributions also discuss potential trade-offs or caveats involved with each decision. An Application Science For Multi-Agent Systems is an excellent reference for anyone involved in developing multi-agent systems.

PAAMS, the International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems is an international yearly forum to present, to discuss, and to disseminate the latest developments and the most important outcomes related to real-world applications. It provides a unique opportunity to bring multi-disciplinary experts, academics and practitioners together to exchange their ex-perience in the development of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. This volume presents the papers that have been accepted for the 2010 edition in the Special Sessions and Workshops. PAAMS'10 Special Sessions and Workshops are a very useful tool in order to complement the regular program with new or emerging topics of particular interest to the participating community. Special Sessions and Workshops that emphasize on multi-disciplinary and transversal aspects, as well as cutting-edge topics were especially encouraged and welcomed.

Research on Agents and Multi-agent Systems has matured during the last decade and many effective applications of this technology are now deployed. PAAMS provides an international forum to presents and discuss the latest scientific developments and their effective applications, to assess the impact of the approach, and to facilitate technology transfer. PAAMS started as a local initiative, but since grown to become the international yearly platform to present, to discuss, and to disseminate the latest developments and the most important outcomes related to real-world applications. It provides a unique opportunity to bring multi-disciplinary experts, academics and practitioners together to Exchange their experience in the development and deployment of Agents and Multi-agents systems. PAAMS intends to bring together researchers and developers from industry and the academic world to report on the latest scientific and technical advances on the application of multi-agent systems, to discuss and debate the major issues, and to showcase the latest systems using agent based technology. It will promote a forum for discussion on how agent based techniques, methods and tools help system designers to accomplish the mapping between available agent technology and application needs. Other stakeholders should be rewarded with a better understanding of the potential and challenges of the agent-oriented approach. This edition of PAAMS special sessions is organized by the Bioinformatics, Intelligent System and Educational Technology Research Group (http://bisite.usal.es) of the University of Salamanca. The present edition was held in Salamanca, Spain, from 22nd to 24th May 2013.

PAAMS, the International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems is the international yearly tribune to present, to discuss, and to disseminate the latest developments and the most important outcomes related to real-world applications. It provides a unique opportunity to bring multi-disciplinary experts, academics and practitioners together to exchange their experience in the development of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. This volume presents the papers that have been accepted for the 2011 edition. These articles capture the most innovative results and this year’s trends: Finance and Trading, Information Systems and Organisations, Leisure Culture and Interactions, Medicine and Cloud Computing, Platforms and Adaptation, Robotics and Manufacturing, Security and Privacy, Transports and Optimisation paper.

PAAMS, the International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems is an evolution of the International Workshop on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. PAAMS is an international yearly tribune to present, to discuss, and to disseminate the latest developments and the most important outcomes related to real-world applications. It provides a unique opportunity to bring multi-disciplinary experts, academics and practitioners together to exchange their experience in the development of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. This volume presents the papers that have been accepted for the 2011 in the workshops: Workshop on Agents for Ambient Assisted Living, Workshop on Agent-Based Solutions for Manufacturing and Supply Chain, Workshop on Agents and Multi-agent systems for Enterprise Integration.

This book presents a coherent, well-balanced survey of recent advances in software engineering approaches to the design and analysis of realistic large-scale multi-agent systems (MAS). The chapters included are devoted to various techniques and methods used to cope with the complexity of real-world MAS. Reflecting the importance of agent properties in today's software systems, the power of agent-based software engineering is illustrated using examples that are representative of successful applications.

The study of multi-agent systems (MAS) focuses on systems in which many intelligent agents interact with each other. These agents are considered to be autonomous entities such as software programs or robots. Their interactions can either be cooperative (for example as in an ant colony) or selfish (as in a free market economy). This book assumes only basic knowledge of algorithms and discrete maths, both of which are taught as standard in the first or second year of computer science degree programmes. A basic knowledge of artificial intelligence would useful to help understand some of the issues, but is not essential. The book’s main aims are: To introduce the student to the concept of agents and multi-agent systems, and the main applications for which they are appropriate To introduce the main issues surrounding the design of intelligent agents To introduce the main issues surrounding the design of a multi-agent society To introduce a number of typical applications for agent technology After reading the book the student should understand: The notion of an agent, how agents are distinct from other software paradigms (e.g. objects) and the characteristics of applications that lend themselves to agent-oriented software The key issues associated with constructing agents capable of intelligent autonomous action and the main approaches taken to developing such agents 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 The main application areas of agent-based systems

In today’s world, the increasing requirement for emulating the behavior of real-world applications for achieving effective management and control has necessitated the usage of advanced computational techniques. Computational intelligence-based techniques that combine a variety of problem solvers are becoming increasingly pervasive. The ability of these methods to adapt to the dynamically changing environment and learn in an online manner has increased their usefulness in simulating intelligent behaviors as observed in humans. These intelligent systems are able to handle the stochastic and uncertain nature of the real-world problems. Application domains requiring interaction of people or organizations with different, even possibly conflicting goals and proprietary information handling are growing exponentially. To efficiently handle these types of complex interactions, distributed problem solving systems like multiagent systems have become a necessity. The rapid advancements in network communication technologies have provided the platform for successful implementation of such intelligent agent-based problem solvers. An agent can be viewed as a self-contained, concurrently executing thread of control that encapsulates some state and communicates with its environment, and possibly other agents via message passing. Agent-based systems offer advantages when independently developed components must interoperate in a heterogenous environment. Such agent-based systems are increasingly being applied in a wide range of areas including telecommunications, Business process modeling, computer games, distributed system control and robot systems.