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Theoretical and Empirical Aspects of a Planner in a Multi-agent Environment

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Logics in Artificial Intelligence (JELIA 2002)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 2424))

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Abstract

We give the theoretical foundations and empirical evaluation of a planning agent, ashop, performing HTN planning in a multi-agent environment. ashop is based on ASHOP, an agentised version of the original SHOP HTN planning algorithm, and is integrated in the IMPACT multi-agent environment. We ran several experiments involving accessing various distributed, heterogeneous information sources, based on simplified versions of noncombatant evacuation operations, NEO’s. As a result, we noticed that in such realistic settings the time spent on communication (including network time) is orders of magnitude higher than the actual inference process. This has important consequences for optimisations of such planners. Our main results are: (1) using NEO’s as new, more realistic benchmarks for planners acting in an agent environment, and (2) a memoization mechanism implemented on top of shop, which improves the overall performance considerably.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of CS, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, M13 9PL, Manchester, UK

    Jürgen Dix

  2. Dept. of CS, University of Lehigh, 19 Memorial Drive West, 18015, Bethlehem, PA, USA

    Hector Munoz-Avila

  3. Dept. of CS, University of Maryland, A.V. Williams Building, 20752, College Park, MD, USA

    Dana Nau & Lingling Zhang

Authors
  1. Jürgen Dix
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  2. Hector Munoz-Avila
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  3. Dana Nau
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  4. Lingling Zhang
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. DEIS, University of Calabria, P.te P. Bucci, Cubo 41C, 87036, Rende, CS, Italy

    Sergio Flesca  & Sergio Greco  & 

  2. Department of Mathematics, University of Calabria, P.te P. Bucci, Cubo 30B, 87036, Rende, CS, Italy

    Giovambattista Ianni  & Nicola Leone  & 

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© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Dix, J., Munoz-Avila, H., Nau, D., Zhang, L. (2002). Theoretical and Empirical Aspects of a Planner in a Multi-agent Environment. In: Flesca, S., Greco, S., Ianni, G., Leone, N. (eds) Logics in Artificial Intelligence. JELIA 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 2424. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45757-7_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45757-7_15

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-44190-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45757-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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