Routing in telecommunications networks with ant-like agents
IATA '98 Proceedings of the second international workshop on Intelligent agents for telecommunication applications
Multi-Agent Systems: An Introduction to Distributed Artificial Intelligence
Multi-Agent Systems: An Introduction to Distributed Artificial Intelligence
Introduction to Multiagent Systems
Introduction to Multiagent Systems
Programming Pervasive and Mobile Computing Applications with the TOTA Middleware
PERCOM '04 Proceedings of the Second IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom'04)
Protocol Based Communication for Situated Multi-Agent Systems
AAMAS '04 Proceedings of the Third International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems - Volume 1
ICAC '05 Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Automatic Computing
Views: customizable abstractions for contextaware applications in MANETs
SELMAS '05 Proceedings of the fourth international workshop on Software engineering for large-scale multi-agent systems
A Formal Model for Situated Multi-Agent Systems
Fundamenta Informaticae - Multiagent Systems (FAMAS'03)
Environments for multiagent systems state-of-the-art and research challenges
E4MAS'04 Proceedings of the First international conference on Environments for Multi-Agent Systems
Digital pheromones for coordination of unmanned vehicles
E4MAS'04 Proceedings of the First international conference on Environments for Multi-Agent Systems
Architectural design of a distributed application with autonomic quality requirements
DEAS '05 Proceedings of the 2005 workshop on Design and evolution of autonomic application software
Field-Based Coordination for Pervasive Computing Applications
Bio-Inspired Computing and Communication
The agent environment in multi-agent systems: A middleware perspective
Multiagent and Grid Systems - Engineering Environments in Multiagent Systems
FPGA framework for agent systems using dynamic partial reconfiguration
HoloMAS'11 Proceedings of the 5th international conference on Industrial applications of holonic and multi-agent systems for manufacturing
ESAW'05 Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Engineering Societies in the Agents World
Indirect interaction in environments for multi-agent systems
E4MAS'05 Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on Environments for Multi-Agent Systems
Augmenting the physical environment through embedded wireless technologies
E4MAS'05 Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on Environments for Multi-Agent Systems
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In situated multi-agent systems (situated MASs), agents are explicitly placed in an environment. A situated agent does not not use long-term planning to decide what action sequence should be executed, but selects actions on the basis of its current position, the world it perceives and limited internal state. Situated agents exploit the environment to coordinate their behavior and to reach a common goal. In a recent project, we applied situated MASs to the control of an automated transportation system that uses automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) to transport loads in a warehouse. In contrast to traditional approaches where the AGVs are controlled by a central server, in this project we model the AGVs as agents in a situated MAS, aiming to improve flexibility and openness. Since the physical environment of AGVs is very restricted, it offers little opportunities for agents to use the environment. We introduce a virtual environment for agents to live in. This virtual environment (1) offers a medium that agents can use to exchange information and coordinate their behavior, and (2) serves as a suitable abstraction to shield low-level physical processing from the AGV agents. Since the only infrastructure available to the AGVs is a wireless network, the virtual environment is necessarily distributed over the AGVs. Synchronization of the state of the virtual environment is provided by ObjectPlaces, a middleware infrastructure that offers support to exchange and share information among nodes in mobile and ad-hoc networks. In this paper, we demonstrate how the environment is used creatively in the design of a MAS solution, helping to manage the complexity of engineering a complex real-world application.