9 Implicit Cooperation

Question 1

Implicit

Answer 1

• cooperative agents behave in a socially coordinated way without an explicit exchange of communication
• the environment acts as the (indirect) interaction mechanism.

Question 2

Implicit Examples

Answer 2

Network routing, shortest path, ants

Question 3

Why explicit?

Answer 3

• Speed: it takes too long to communicate with others. by then the opportunities are missed
• Security: not wanting others to know what your plans are
• Low Complexity: some agents may be too simple to deal with the task of generating and understanding long plans
• Lack of a communication channel: there may actually be no way to communicate

Question 4

Organizational Structures

Organizations

Answer 4

• Markets (for exchange of goods, provide and request services)
• Networks (for dynamic collaboration)
• Hierarchies (for the efficient production of results or goods)

Question 5

Organizational Structures

Advantages

Answer 5

• cheap and easy to implement
• useful in master/slave relationships
• scales well
• helps coordination in distributed problem solving by establishing structures from outside the MAS