Assignments for Autonomous Multiagent Systems (G22.3033-012)

 

Week 12

Readings: (due date: Tuesday, 12/11)
  • Choose ANY ONE (1) of the following papers on entertainment agents:

  • An Architecture for Action, Emotion, and Social Behavior.
     Joseph Bates, A. Bryan Loyall, and W. Scott Reilly.
    in Artificial Social Systems: Fourth European Workshop on Modeling Autonomous Agents in a Multi-Agent World, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1994.
  • Multiagent Collaboration in Directed Improvisation.
     B. Hayes-Roth, L. Brownston, and R. v. Gent.
    First International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems, San Francisco CA, 1995.
  • Creatures: Artificial Life Autonomous Software Agents for Home Entertainment.
     Stephen Grand, Dave Cliff, and Anil Malhotra.
    Millenium technical report 9601, 1996.
  • BoB: an Interactive Improvisational Companion .
     Belinda Thom.
    Fourth International Conference on Autonomous Agents, 2000.
  • A Social Reinforcement Learning Agent.
     Charles Lee Isbell Jr., Christian R. Shelton, Michael Kearns, Satinder Singh, and Peter Stone.
    Fifth International Conference on Autonomous Agents, 2001.
  • Tears and Fears: Modeling emotions and emotional behaviors in synthetic agents.
     Jonathan Gratch and Stacy Marsella.
    Fifth International Conference on Autonomous Agents, 2001.
    • Exercises: (due date: Tuesday, 12/11)
  • Suggest a possible extension or improvement upon the system described in the paper you read.
  • Send your responses as ASCII text to pstone@cs.nyu.edu with subject: "Week 12 exercises".
    • Final project: (due date: Monday, 12/10)
  • See "Week 10" (below)

    • Week 11

    Readings: (due date: Tuesday, 12/4)
  • Textbook: Sections 6.1 - 6.3
  • Optional: Sections 6.4 - 6.6
  • Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning: Independent versus Cooperative Agents.
     Ming Tan.
    International Conference on Machine Learning, 1993.
  • Methods for Competitive Co-evolution: Finding Opponents Worth Beating.
     Christopher D. Rosin and Richard K. Belew.
    Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Genetic Algorithms, 1995.
  • Optional: Layered Learning.
     Peter Stone and Manuela Veloso.
    Eleventh European Conference on Machine Learning, 2000.
    • Exercises: (due date: Tuesday, 12/4)
  • Characterize either the Tan or the Rosin and Belew application in terms of the 6 features presented in the textbook.
  • Optional (for extra credit): Think of a domain not mentioned in the reading to which layered learning might be applicable.
  • Send your responses as ASCII text to pstone@cs.nyu.edu with subject: "Week 11 exercises".
    • Final project: (due date: Monday, 12/10)
  • See "Week 10" (below)

    • Week 10

    Readings: (due date: Tuesday, 11/27)
  • A Rigorous, Operational Formalization of Recursive Modeling.
     Piotr J. Gmytrasiewicz and Edmund H. Durfee.
    In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems (ICMAS), pages 125-132, June 1995.
  • Tracking dynamic team activity.
     Milind Tambe.
    National Conference on Artificial Intelligence(AAAI), 1996.
  • On behavior classification in adversarial environments.
     Patrick Riley and Manuela Veloso.
    In Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS-2000) , 2000.
    • Exercises: (due date: Tuesday, 11/27)
  • Think of a domain not in the readings in which you could benefit from agent modeling. Briefly outline approaches with and without modeling and explain what benefits you would expect in the modeling case.
  • Send your responses as ASCII text to pstone@cs.nyu.edu with subject: "Week 10 exercises".
    • Final project: (due date: Friday, 12/14)
  • Submit a team and final report for the final project (different due dates).

    • Week 9

    Readings: (due date: Tuesday, 11/20)
  • Textbook: Chapter 5
    • Exercises: (due date: Tuesday, 11/20)
  • Exercise 1 (p. 252)
  • Send your responses as ASCII text to pstone@cs.nyu.edu with subject: "Week 9 exercises".
    • Final project progress report: (due date: Tuesday, 11/20)
  • See "Week 7" (below)
  • Don't forget to include a team name, binaries, and instructions on how to start your team!
  • To turn in your log files and binaries, copy them to the directory /home/agents/handin/progress/username where username is your username.

    • Week 8

    Readings: (due date: Tuesday, 11/13)
  • ARCHON: A Distributed Artificial Intelligence System for Industrial Applications.
     D. Cockburn and N. R. Jennings.
    in Foundations of Distributed Artificial Intelligence (eds. G. M. P. O'Hare and N. R. Jennings)
    Wiley, 1996, 319-344.
  • The above provides examples of industrial multiagent systems. An overview of others (optional):
    Textbook: Chapter 9
  • BDI-agents: from theory to practice.
     A. S. Rao and M. P. Georgeff.
    in Proceedings of the First Intl. Conference on Multiagent Systems, 1995.
  • Trafficopter: A Distributed Collection System for Traffic Information.
     Alexandros Moukas1 Konstantinos Chandrinos, and Pattie Maes.
    in (M. Klusch, G. Weiss eds.) Cooperative Information Agents II, Springer Verlag, 1998.
    • Exercises: (due date: Tuesday, 11/13)
  • Which application(s) in the readings (if any) would you characterize as being essentially ant-based? Which is antithetical to the ant-based approach (if many would qualify, just pick one)?
  • Send your responses as ASCII text to pstone@cs.nyu.edu with subject: "Week 8 exercises".
    • Final project progress report: (due date: Tuesday, 11/20)
  • See "Week 7" (below)

    • Week 7

    Readings: (due date: Tuesday, 11/6)
  • "Go to the Ant": Engineering Principles from Natural Agent Systems.
     H. Van Dyke Parunak.
    Annals of Operations Research, 75:69-101, 1997.
  • Ant-Like Missionaries and Cannibals: synthetic Pheromones for Distributed Motion Control.
     H. Van Dyke Parunak and Sven Bruieckner.
    Fourth International conference on Autonomous Agents, 2000.
  • AntNet: Distributed Stigmergetic Control for Communications Networks.
     G. Di Caro and M. Dorigo.
    Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, vol. 9, pp. 317-365, 1998.
    • Exercises: (due date: Tuesday, 11/6)
  • Which principles laid out in "Go To the Ant" are satisfied or violated in the other 2 papers?
  • Send your responses as ASCII text to pstone@cs.nyu.edu with subject: "Week 7 exercises".
    • Final project progress report: (due date: Tuesday, 11/20)
  • Submit a progress report for your final project.

    • Week 6

    Readings: (due date: Tuesday, 10/30)
  • Choose ANY THREE (3) of the following RoboCup case studies (to help you think about your proposal):

  • Reactive Deliberation: An Architecture for Real-time Intelligent Control in Dynamic Environments.
     Michael K. Sahota.
    Proceedings of the Twelfth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 1994.
    (From the group that invented robotic soccer: pre-RoboCup)
  • A Role-Based Decision-Mechanism for Teams of Reactive and Coordinating Agents.
     Slivia Coradeschi and Lars Karlsson.
    in Kitano (ed.) RoboCup-97: Robot Soccer World Cup I. Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1998
    (an early, successful approach)
  • Co-evolving Soccer Softbot Team Coordination with Genetic Programming.
     Sean Luke, Charles Hohn, Jonathan Farris, Gary Jackson, and James Hendler.
    in Kitano (ed.) RoboCup-97: Robot Soccer World Cup I. Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1998
    (1997 evolutionary learning approach)
  • AT Humboldt -- Development, Practice and Theory.
     Hans-Dieter Burkhard, Markus Hannebauer, Jan Wendler.
    in Kitano (ed.) RoboCup-97: Robot Soccer World Cup I. Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1998
    (1997 champion)
  • Evolving Team Darwin United.
     David Andre and Astro Teller.
    in Asada, M. (ed) Robocup-98: Robot Soccer World Cup II. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1999.
    (1998 evolutionary learning approach)
  • Behavior Networks for Continuous Domains using Situation-Dependent Motivations.
     Klaus Dorer.
    Proceedings of the 16th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 1999.
    (1999 runner-up)
  • The CMUnited-99 Champion Simulator Team.
     Peter Stone, Patrick Riley, and Manuela Veloso.
    in M. Veloso, E. Pagello and H. Kitano (eds.) RoboCup-99: Robot Soccer World Cup III. Springer Verlag, Berlin, 2000.
    (1998, 1999 champion)
  • FC Portugal Team Description: RoboCup 2000 Simulation League Champion.
     Luis Paulo Reis and Nuno Lau.
    in Stone, Balch, Kraetzschmarr (eds.) RoboCup-2000: Robot Soccer World Cup IV. Springer Verlag, Berlin, 2001.
    (2000 champion)
  • Learning Situation Dependent Success Rates of Actions in a RoboCup Scenario.
     Sebastian Buck, Martin Riedmiller.
    Pacific Rim International Coference on Artificial Intelligence, 2000.
    (2000 and 2001 runner-up)
  • Global Planning from Local Perspective: An Implementation of Observation-based Plan Coordination in RoboCup Simulation Games.
     Cai Yunpeng, Chen Jiang, Yao Jinyi, and Li Shi.
    Pre-print available on-line, 2002.
    (2001 champion)
    • Exercises: (due date: Tuesday, 10/30)
  • For each of the three articles you chose to read, list the strengths of the described approach with respect to those in the other two articles that you read. That is, what aspects of the complete task does it focus on that are ignored by the other approaches, what unique techniques are used, or what does it do particularly well.
  • Send your responses as ASCII text to pstone@cs.nyu.edu with subject: "Week 6 exercises".
    • Final Project Proposal: (due date: Tuesday, 10/30)
  • See "Week 5" (below)

    • Week 5

    Readings: (due date: Tuesday, 10/23)
  • On Team Formation.
     Cohen, P. R., Levesque, H. R., and Smith, I.
    in Hintikka, J. and Tuomela, R. (Eds.) Contemporary Action Theory. Synthese, 1997.
  • Towards Flexible Teamwork.
     Tambe, M.
    Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR), Volume 7, pages 83-124, 1997.
    • Exercises: (due date: Tuesday, 10/23)
  • Choose a domain or example not discussed in the readings and briefly describe how it could be represented in terms of joint intentions and/or STEAM.
  • Send your responses as ASCII text to pstone@cs.nyu.edu with subject: "Week 5 exercises".
    • Programming: (due date: Tuesday, 10/23)
  • See "Week 4" (below)
    • Final Project Proposal: (due date: Tuesday, 10/30)
  • Submit a proposal for your final project.

    • Week 4

    Readings: (due date: Tuesday, 10/16)
  • Textbook: Chapter 2
  • Agent Communication Languages: The Current Landscape.
     Y. Labrou, T. Finin, and Y. Peng.
    IEEE Inteligent Systems, March/April, 1999.
  • Agent Oriented Design of a Robotic Soccer Team.
     Collinot A.,Drogoul A. and Benhamou P.
    Proceedings of ICMAS'96, pp. 41-57, AAAI Press, 1996.
    • Exercises: (due date: Tuesday, 10/16)
  • Chapter 2, Exercise 12 (p. 118 in the textbook)
  • Send your responses as ASCII text to pstone@cs.nyu.edu with subject: "Week 4 exercises".
    • Programming: (due date: Tuesday, 10/23)
  • The programming assignment is to use communication among agents to help an agent keep track of where the ball is.
  • To turn in your log files and source code, copy them to the directory /home/agents/handin/prog3/username where username is your username.
  • When the assignment is there, send me an email to that effect, with a brief description of your communication protocol and an answer to the following question: Could an opponent agent disrupt your communication method? How?

    • Week 3

    Readings: (due date: Tuesday, 10/9)
  • MultiAgent Systems.
     Katia Sycara.
    AI Magazine, 1998.
  • The above is an overview of multiagent systems. Another overview (optional):
    Multiagent Systems: A Survey from a Machine Learning Perspective.
     Peter Stone and Manuela Veloso.
    Autonomous Robots, volume 8, number 3, July 2000.
    •
  • Designing and Understanding Adaptive Group Behavior.
     Maja J Mataric.
    Adaptive Behavior 4:1, Dec 1995, 51-80.
  • The CMUnited-98 Champion Simulator Team.
     Peter Stone, Manuela Veloso, and Patrick Riley.
    in RoboCup-98: Robot Soccer World Cup II, M. Asada and H. Kitano (eds.), 1999. Springer Verlag, Berlin.
    HTML version.
    • Exercises: (due date: Tuesday, 10/9)
  • Think of an application that could be implemented as a multiagent system or a single agent. Briefly describe the 2 approaches you envision and list/discuss some of their relative merits.
  • Send your responses as ASCII text to pstone@cs.nyu.edu with subject: "Week 3 exercises".
    • Programming: (due date: Tuesday, 10/9)
  • See "Week 2" (below)

    • Week 2

    Readings: (due date: Tuesday, 10/2)
  • Pages 1-9 of Integrating Planning and Learning: The PRODIGY Architecture.
     Manuela Veloso, Jaime Carbonell, Alicia Perez, Daniel Borrajo, Eugene Fink and Jim Blythe.
    Journal of Theoretical and Experimental Artificial Intelligence, 7(1), 1995.
  • Intelligence without Representation.
     Rodney A. Brooks.
    Artificial Intelligence 47 (1991), 139-159.
    PDF version.
  • The RoboCup Synthetic Agent Challenge 97.
    Hiroaki Kitano, Milind Tambe, Peter Stone, Manuela Veloso, Silvia Coradeschi, Eiichi Osawa, Hitoshi Matsubara, Itsuki Noda, and Minoru Asada.
    Fifteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-97).
    HTML version
    • Exercises: (due date: Tuesday, 10/2)
  • Your current programming assignment is to create "reactive" soccer-playing behaviors. When finished, will they conform to Brooks' design principles for his creatures? In what ways will they, and in what ways won't they?
  • Think of an example of at least one (more, up to three, is better) non-reactive soccer-playing behavior.
  • Send your responses as ASCII text to pstone@cs.nyu.edu with subject: "Week 2 exercises".
    • Programming: (due date: Tuesday, 10/9)
  • The programming assignment has 3 parts:
  • Score a goal.
  • 1 on 1.
  • Passing.
  • To turn in your log files and source code, copy them to the directory /home/agents/handin/prog2/username where username is your username. When the assignment is there, send me an email to that effect.

    • Week 1 (due date: Tuesday, 9/25)

    Readings:
  • Is it an Agent, or just a Program?: A Taxonomy for Autonomous Agents by Stan Franklin and Art Graesser
  • Textbook: prologue pages 2-9, Chapter 1
  • Soccer Server Manual (Just become familiar with it.)
    .

    • Exercises:

  • Textbook exercise 1 from chapter 1 (p. 71).
    One agent not discussed in class or in the readings is sufficient. More (up to three) is better.
    Send your response to pstone@cs.nyu.edu with subject: "Week 1 exercises".
    • Programming:
  • Test your account on the class machines (if you have a problem or need an account, email me ASAP).
  • The programming assignment has 3 parts:
  • Get Familiar with the soccer server.
  • Watch a game.
  • Create a game.
  • To turn in your log file, copy it to the directory /home/agents/handin/prog1/username where username is your username: 
    % cp ~/record.log /home/agents/handin/prog1/`logname`
    When the assignment is there, send me an email to that effect.
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