Koen V. Hindriks - Böcker

Specification and Verification of Multi-agent Systems presents a coherent treatment of the area of formal specification and verification of agent-based systems with a special focus on verification of multi-agent programs. This edited volume includes contributions from international leading researchers in the area, addressing logical formalisms and techniques, such as model checking, theorem proving, and axiomatisations for (semi) automatic verification of agent-based systems. Chapters include: • Using Theorem Proving to Verify Properties of Agent Programs • The Refinement of Multi-Agent Systems • Model Checking Agent Communication • Directions for Agent Model Checking • Model Checking Logics of Strategic Ability: Complexity • Correctness of Mult-Agent Programs: A Hybrid Approach • The Norm Implementation Problem in Normative Multi-Agent Systems • A Verification Logic for GOAL Agents • Using the Maude Term Rewriting Language for Agent Development with Formal Foundations • The Cognitive Agents Specification Language and Verification Environment • A Temporal Trace Language for Formal Modelling and Analysis of Agent Systemns • Assurance of Agent Systems: What Role Should Formal Verification Play? Specification and Verification of Multi-agent Systems is a comprehensive guide that makes a useful tool for researchers, practitioners and students, and serves as a reference work summarizing the state of the art in an accessible manner.

Specification and Verification of Multi-agent Systems presents a coherent treatment of the area of formal specification and verification of agent-based systems with a special focus on verification of multi-agent programs. This edited volume includes contributions from international leading researchers in the area, addressing logical formalisms and techniques, such as model checking, theorem proving, and axiomatisations for (semi) automatic verification of agent-based systems. Chapters include: • Using Theorem Proving to Verify Properties of Agent Programs • The Refinement of Multi-Agent Systems • Model Checking Agent Communication • Directions for Agent Model Checking • Model Checking Logics of Strategic Ability: Complexity • Correctness of Mult-Agent Programs: A Hybrid Approach • The Norm Implementation Problem in Normative Multi-Agent Systems • A Verification Logic for GOAL Agents • Using the Maude Term Rewriting Language for Agent Development with Formal Foundations • The Cognitive Agents Specification Language and Verification Environment • A Temporal Trace Language for Formal Modelling and Analysis of Agent Systemns • Assurance of Agent Systems: What Role Should Formal Verification Play? Specification and Verification of Multi-agent Systems is a comprehensive guide that makes a useful tool for researchers, practitioners and students, and serves as a reference work summarizing the state of the art in an accessible manner.

Since its origination in the mid-twentieth century, the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has undergone a number of developments. While the early interest in AI was mainly triggered by the desire to develop artifacts that show the same intelligent behavior as humans, nowadays scientists have realized that research in AI involves a multitude of separate challenges, besides the traditional goal to replicate human intelligence. In particular, recent history has pointed out that a variety of ‘intelligent’ computational techniques, part of which are inspired by human intelligence, may be successfully applied to solve all kinds of practical problems. This sub-area of AI, which has its main emphasis on applications of intelligent systems to solve real-life problems, is currently known under the term Applied Intelligence.  The objective of the International Conference on Industrial, Engineering & Other Applications of Applied Intelligent Systems (IEA/AIE) is to promote and disseminate recent research developments in Applied Intelligence. The current book contains 30 chapters authored by participants of the 26th edition of IEA/AIE, which was held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The material of each chapter is self-contained and was reviewed by at least two anonymous referees, to assure a high quality. Readers can select any individual chapter based on their research interests without the need of reading other chapters. We are confident that this book provides useful reference values to researchers and students in the field of Applied Intelligence, enabling them to find opportunities and recognize challenges in the field.

Since its origination in the mid-twentieth century, the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has undergone a number of developments. While the early interest in AI was mainly triggered by the desire to develop artifacts that show the same intelligent behavior as humans, nowadays scientists have realized that research in AI involves a multitude of separate challenges, besides the traditional goal to replicate human intelligence. In particular, recent history has pointed out that a variety of ‘intelligent’ computational techniques, part of which are inspired by human intelligence, may be successfully applied to solve all kinds of practical problems. This sub-area of AI, which has its main emphasis on applications of intelligent systems to solve real-life problems, is currently known under the term Applied Intelligence.  The objective of the International Conference on Industrial, Engineering & Other Applications of Applied Intelligent Systems (IEA/AIE) is to promote and disseminate recent research developments in Applied Intelligence. The current book contains 30 chapters authored by participants of the 26th edition of IEA/AIE, which was held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The material of each chapter is self-contained and was reviewed by at least two anonymous referees, to assure a high quality. Readers can select any individual chapter based on their research interests without the need of reading other chapters. We are confident that this book provides useful reference values to researchers and students in the field of Applied Intelligence, enabling them to find opportunities and recognize challenges in the field.

These are the proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2007), held at the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, September 19–21, 2007. Intoday’sworldofubiquitouslyconnectedheterogeneousinformationsystems and computing devices, the intelligent coordination and provision of relevant added-value information at any time, anywhere is of key importance to a va- ety of applications. This challenge is envisioned to be coped with by means of appropriate intelligent and cooperative information agents. An information agent is a computational software entity that has access to one or multiple heterogeneous and geographically dispersed data and infor- tion sources. It pro-actively searches for and maintains information on behalf of its human users, or other agents preferably just in time. In other words, it is managing and overcoming the di?culties associated with information overload in open, pervasive information and service landscapes. Each component of a modern cooperative information system is represented by an appropriate intelligent information agent capable of resolving system and semantic heterogeneities in a given context on demand. Cooperative infor- tion agents are supposed to accomplish both individual and shared joint goals depending on the actual user preferences in line with given or deduced limits of time, budget and resources available. One major challenge of developing age- based intelligent information systems in open environments like the Internet and the Web is to balance the autonomy of networked data, information, and knowledge sources with the potential payo?s of leveraging them by the use of cooperative and intelligent information agents.

ThesearetheproceedingsoftheInternationalWorkshoponProgrammingMulti- Agent Systems (ProMAS 2008), the sixth of a series of workshops that is aimed at discussing and providing an overview of current state-of-the-art technology for programming multi-agent systems. The aim of the ProMAS workshop series is to promote research on progr- ming technologies and tools that can e?ectively contribute to the development and deployment of multi-agent systems. In particular, the workshop promotes the discussion and exchange of ideas concerning the techniques, concepts, - quirements, and principles that are important for establishing multi-agent p- gramming platforms that are useful in practice and have a theoretically sound basis. Topics addressed include but are not limited to the theory and app- cations of agent programming languages, the veri?cation and analysis of agent systems,aswellastheimplementationofsocialstructureinagent-basedsystems (e. g. ,roleswithin organizations,coordinationandcommunicationin multi-agent systems). In its previous editions, ProMAS constituted an invaluable occasion bringing together leading researchers from both academia and industry to discuss issues on the design of programming languages and tools for multi-agent systems. We were very pleased to be able to again present a range of high-quality papers at ProMAS 2008. After ?ve successful editions of the ProMAS workshop series, which took place during AAMAS 2003 (Melbourne, Australia), AAMAS 2004 (New York, USA), AAMAS 2005 (Utrecht, The Netherlands), AAMAS 2006 (Hakodate, Japan), and AAMAS 2007 (Honolulu, Hawai’i), the sixth edition took place on May 13 in Estoril, Portugal, in conjunction with AAMAS 2008, the main international conference on autonomous agents and MAS.

This book constitutes the refereed post-proceedings of the First International Workshop on Cognitive Agents for Virtual Environments, CAVE 2012, held at AAMAS 2012, in Valencia, Spain, in June 2012. The 10 full papers presented were thoroughly reviewed and selected from 14 submissions. In addition one invited high quality contribution has been included. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: coupling agents and game engines; using games with agents for education; visualization and simulation; and evaluating games with agents.