Abstract
This chapter aims at providing the reader with a thorough understanding of the notion of cooperation and its use as a self-organising mechanism in artificial systems. As the complexity and scope of applications increase, the need for self-adaptation must be addressed by software engineers. This chapter describes why and how cooperation can be used for this. An intuitive understanding of the concept will be provided, as well as definitions. As computer scientists, the readers will be introduced to the translation of the concept in artificial systems through the Adaptive Multi-Agent Systems (AMAS) theory. The importance of adaptation and emergence will be presented, as well as how cooperation plays the role of the engine for self-organisation. Technically, a multi-agent system approach is used, and the architecture of a cooperative agent in this theory is described.
For a concrete understanding of this approach, two case studies are described in detail. The first is a dynamic and open service providing MAS where all the providers and customers (the agents) need to be put in relation with one another. This relationship needs to be constantly updated to ensure the most relevant social network (by being cooperative one with another). The second is a multi-robot resource transportation problem where the robots (the agents) have to share the limited routes to efficiently transport the resources (by choosing cooperatively how to move). Each description focuses on how cooperation can be applied, what Non-Cooperative Situation is for the agents and how it enables them to self-organise towards the adequate emergent function (and these concepts will also be explained).
Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds.
Alexander Graham Bell
Thank you for your cooperation and vice versa.
Eugene Ormandy
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
The concept of NCS will be precisely defined in Sect. 9.4.1, Definition 9.4.
- 5.
“Functional” refers to the “function” the system is producing, in a broad meaning, i.e. what the system is doing and what an observer would qualify as the behaviour of a system. And “adequate” simply means that the system is doing the “right” thing, judged by an observer or the environment. Therefore, “functional adequacy” can be seen as “having the appropriate behaviour for the task”.
- 6.
There is only one action possible, otherwise an NCS is detected.
- 7.
If r 2 moves in another direction than the opposite direction of r 1, it is not considered as blocking because it will not block the traffic anymore.
- 8.
It is risky in the sense that it may occur a lot of non-cooperative situations such as conflicts.
- 9.
A robot is considered as returning until it has no choice of side movements.
- 10.
Robots with an antinomic behaviour to the considered robot, for instance going in the opposite direction in a corridor.
- 11.
Robots cannot share their memory as they cannot communicate.
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Georgé, JP., Gleizes, MP., Camps, V. (2011). Cooperation. In: Di Marzo Serugendo, G., Gleizes, MP., Karageorgos, A. (eds) Self-organising Software. Natural Computing Series. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17348-6_9
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