Chinese Journal of Computers   Full Text
Title	Emergence-Oriented Research on MAS with Quantifications Based on the Notions in Science of Complexity
Authors	JIN Shi-Yao HUANG Hong-Bing REN Chuan-Jun
Address	(National Laboratory for Parallel and Distributed Processing, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073) (School of Computer Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073)
Year	2009
Issue	No.1(17—29)
Abstract &   Background	Abstract In the area of MASs, emergence-oriented researches regard MASs as particular complex systems and focus on the emergent characteristics of MASs on the macro level. In order to characterize MASs or specify some issues in MASs at macro level, several notions in the science of complexity should be used in these researches. This paper firstly gives an overview of these several notions and their quantifications, trying to catch a deeper understanding of them. Then, with some applications of these notions and their quantifications in MASs, some inspirations of them for emergence-oriented researches are illustrated. Hoping this overview and the inspirations can further the emergence-oriented researches on MAS. The notions in the science of complexity this paper mentioned include complexity, edge-of-chaos, self-organization, emergence, adaptation and evolution. Keywords multi-agent system; emergence; complexity; edge-of-chaos; self-organization; adaptation Background In a lot of applications, MASs are identified as particular complex systems. So, in the area of MAS, more and more attentions are paid to the phenomenon of emergence which is intrinsic in complex systems. And emergence-oriented research on MASs becomes a new direction in the area of MAS. Emergence-oriented researches focus on the emergent characteristics of MASs and the mechanisms of emergence which correlate the macro- and micro-level characteristics. The final goal of these researches is to develop a set of methods for engineering emergence in MASs. In order to characterize MASs or specify some issues in MASs at macro level, several notions in the science of complexity should be used in emergence-oriented researches. These notions include complexity, edge-of-chaos, self-organization, emergence, adaptation and evolution, etc. This paper firstly gives an overview of these several notions and their quantifications, trying to catch a deeper understanding of them. Then, with some applications of these notions and their quantifications in MASs, some inspirations of them for emergence-oriented researches are illustrated. Hoping this overview and the inspirations can further the emergence-oriented researches on MAS. Authors have done research on MAS and complex systems, especially on MAS-based modeling and simulation of CASs, for many years. By these studies, they have a deep understanding of emergence in complex systems. Recently, they apply their research result to emergence-oriented research on MASs. A remarkable tool, namely JCass, have facilitated their research, which is a distributed platform for agent-based simulations developed by themselves.