Towards a Simulation Tool for Evaluating Dynamic Reorganization of Agent Societies

By: Virginia Dignum, Frank Dignum, Vasco Futado, and Adriano Melo
Date: 15th November 2004
CPM Report No.: CPM-04-145

Presented at the "Engineering with Social Metaphors" day of the AISB Symposium on Socially Inspired Computing,  University of Hertfordship, April 2005.


Abstract

Reorganization of the structure of an organization is a crucial issue in multi-agent systems that operate in an open, dynamic environment. Currently, most coordination mechanisms are imposed upon the system at design time, and their modification implies the redesign of the system. However, autonomous agents must be able to evaluate and decide the most appropriate organization given the environment conditions. That is, there is a need for dynamic reorganization of coordination structures. In this paper, we propose a classification of reorganization types which considers two layers of reorganization: behavioral and structural. We further describe how simulations can help to determine whether and how reorganization should take place. Finally we present a simulation scenario that is used to evaluate the different reorganization forms.


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