Using reinforcement learning to coordinate better
OA Location
Author(s)
Excelente-Toledo, CB
Jennings, NR
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
This paper examines the potential and the impact of introducing learning capabilities into autonomous agents that make decisions at run-time about which mechanism to exploit in order to coordinate their activities. Specifically, our motivating hypothesis is that to deal with dynamic and unpredictable environments it is important to have agents that learn the right situations in which to attempt coordination and the right coordination method to use in those situations. In particular, the efficacy of learning is evaluated when agents have varying types and amounts of information when those coordinating decisions are taken. This hypothesis is evaluated empirically, in a grid-world scenario in which a) an agent?s predictions about the other agents in the environment are approximately correct and b) an agent cannot correctly predict the others? behaviour. The results presented show when, where and why learning is effective when it comes to making a decision about selecting a coordination mechanism.
Date Issued
2005
Citation
Computational Intelligence, 2005, 21, pp.217-245
Start Page
217
End Page
245
Journal / Book Title
Computational Intelligence
Volume
21
Identifier
http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/260811/
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Computer Science
COMPUTER SCIENCE, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
coordination
agent interaction
collaborative agents
reinforcement learning
SYSTEMS
Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing
0801 Artificial Intelligence And Image Processing
1702 Cognitive Science
0802 Computation Theory And Mathematics
Notes
keywords: Coordination, agent interaction, collaborative agents, reinforcement learning
Article Number
3