T5 - HALF DAY =================================================================== Engineering Self-Organizing Applications Van Parunak and Sven Brueckner http://www.erim.org/~sbrueckner/AAMAS_ESOA_tutorial/ ==================================================================== ABSTRACT OF TUTORIAL The success of many multi-agent systems (MAS's) depends on the existence of some form of organization among the individual agents that allows the system as a whole to achieve more than any single agent. In many traditional MAS's, organization is imposed by the system designer, or achieved dynamically by centralized control, or constrained by existing organizations in the problem domain. These mechanisms face severe limitations as the number of agents increases and as the problem domain becomes increasingly distributed and dynamic. An alternative approach is systems that organize themselves through local interactions. Self-organizing applications (SOAs) take inspiration from biology, physical world, chemistry, or social systems. Typical examples of SOAs are systems that reproduce socially-based insect behavior, such as robots or Artificial Life. The global structure and behavior of these complex systems emerges from local interactions between the different entities or agents that form the whole system without explicit representation of these global patterns on the level of the individual. The main characteristic of all these applications is their ability to achieve complex collective tasks with relatively simple individual behaviors, without central control or hierarchy. Self-organization does not happen automatically in just any population of agents, but depends on certain basic principles and dynamics that have begun to be understood over the past few years. Some conventional methods, like hierarchical control, are alternatives to self-organization, while others, like distributed market schemes, depend implicitly on self-organizing dynamics and would be more effective if these dynamics were understood and taken into account. This half-day tutorial focuses on the current state of practice in engineering SOA's and sets the stage for the AAMAS 2003 ESOA Workshop. The tutorial gives a structured synthesis of the field as it is now, including the needs that motivate the effort, the major classes of techniques, and examples of applications. ============================================================================ INTENDED AUDIENCE Achieving system-level organization is essential for the success of many MAS's. Traditional mechanisms are limited in their ability to handle extremely large, distributed, dynamic populations. Researchers and system implementers faced with such systems will welcome the new insights that are being articulated in the growing SOA community. The tutorial is relevant for researchers in multi-agent systems who must cope with large agent populations in dynamic, highly distributed domains. ========================================================================= BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED Familiarity with traditional mechanisms for achieving organization in agent communities is helpful but not required. ========================================================================== DETAILED OUTLINE The tutorial will span one half of the first workshop and tutorial day to set the stage for the ESOA workshop on the second day. During the course of the tutorial we present a number of examples for engineered self-organizing applications, including software demonstrations (as available) for illustration purposes. The tutorial is organized around the following questions: * WHAT is self-organization? o Starting with the broader issue of organizing autonomous processes (agents) into a functional system, we define self-organization and present approaches to quantitatively detect its onset. * WHERE would you want to use it? What kinds of problems lend themselves to it? o We discuss common features of (engineered) self-organizing multi-agent systems and derive necessary as well as useful features of problem domains, which require or at least permit a self-organizing approach. Thus we provide guidelines for system's architects when they approach a new problem and need to decide whether to choose self-organization or other means of structuring their system. * WHY does it work? o We start with examples of self-organization in natural and artificial systems in various domains to motivate general design principles. * HOW can we apply these principles in engineered systems? o We demonstrate the use of the proposed principles in the design as well as the analysis of self-organizing systems. * WHO is working in this area? o We briefly introduce the current landscape of research and development activities related to engineering self-organizing applications, which links the tutorial directly to the ESOA Workshop. ==================================================================== BIOGRAPHIES OF PRESENTERS H. Van Dyke Parunak, Ph.D. 3520 Green Court, Suite 300 Ann Arbor, MI 48105 USA v: +1 734 302 4684 f: +1 734 302 4991 e: van.parunak@altarum.org Principal Investigator (PI) on numerous research and development projects involving various aspects of engineering self-organizing applications (DASCh, JFACC, AORIST, Ant CAFÉ) Dr. Sven A. Brueckner 3520 Green Court, Suite 300 Ann Arbor, MI 48105 USA v: +1 734 302 4683 f: +1 734 302 4991 e: sven.brueckner@altarum.org Masters Thesis and Doctoral Dissertation at Humboldt University Berlin (Germany) and supported by DaimlerChrysler AG Research & Technology on the design and analysis of self-organizing multi-agent systems for real-world applications. Substantial contribution to numerous research and development projects at DaimlerChrysler AG and Altarum involving various aspects of engineering self-organizing applications (KoWest, MASCADA, JFACC, AORIST, Ant CAFÉ)