Preface 1. Decision-Theoretic Foundations 1.1 Game Theory, Rationality, and Intelligence 1.2 Basic Concepts of Decision Theory 1.3 Axioms 1.4 The Expected-Utility Maximization Theorem 1.5 Equivalent Representations 1.6 Bayesian Conditional-Probability Systems 1.7 Limitations of the Bayesian Model 1.8 Domination 1.9 Proofs of the Domination Theorems Exercises 2. Basic Models 2.1 Games in Extensive Form 2.2 Strategic Form and the Normal Representation 2.3 Equivalence of Strategic-Form Games 2.4 Reduced Normal Representations 2.5 Elimination of Dominated Strategies 2.6 Multiagent Representations 2.7 Common Knowledge 2.8 Bayesian Games 2.9 Modeling Games with Incomplete Information Exercises 3. Equilibria of Strategic-Form Games 3.1 Domination and Ratonalizability 3.2 Nash Equilibrium 3.3 Computing Nash Equilibria 3.4 Significance of Nash Equilibria 3.5 The Focal-Point Effect 3.6 The Decision-Analytic Approach to Games 3.7 Evolution. Resistance. and Risk Dominance 3.8 Two-Person Zero-Sum Games 3.9 Bayesian Equilibria 3.10 Purification of Randomized Strategies in Equilibria 3.11 Auctions 3.12 Proof of Existence of Equilibrium 3.13 Infinite Strategy Sets Exercises 4. Sequential Equilibria of Extensive-Form Games 4.1 Mixed Strategies and Behavioral Strategies 4.2 Equilibria in Behavioral Strategies 4.3 Sequential Rationality at Information States with Positive Probability 4.4 Consistent Beliefs and Sequential Rationality at All Information States 4.5 Computing Sequential Equilibria 4.6 Subgame-Perfect Equilibria 4.7 Games with Perfect Information 4.8 Adding Chance Events with Small Probability 4.9 Forward Induction 4.10 Voting and Binary Agendas 4.11 Technical Proofs Exercises 5. Refinements of Equilibrium in Strategic Form 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Perfect Equilibria 5.3 Existence of Perfect and Sequential Equilibria 5.4 Proper Equilibria 5.5 Persistent Equilibria 5.6 Stable Sets 01 Equilibria 5.7 Generic Properties 5.8 Conclusions Exercises 6. Games with Communication 6.1 Contracts and Correlated Strategies 6.2 Correlated Equilibria 6.3 Bayesian Games with Communication 6.4 Bayesian Collective-Choice Problems and Bayesian Bargaining Problems 6.5 Trading Problems with Linear Utility 6.6 General Participation Constraints for Bayesian Games with Contracts 6.7 Sender-Receiver Games 6.8 Acceptable and Predominant Correlated Equilibria 6.9 Communication in Extensive-Form and Multistage Games Exercises Bibliographic Note 7. Repeated Games 7.1 The Repeated Prisoners Dilemma 7.2 A General Model of Repeated Garnet 7.3 Stationary Equilibria of Repeated Games with Complete State Information and Discounting 7.4 Repeated Games with Standard Information: Examples 7.5 General Feasibility Theorems for Standard Repeated Games 7.6 Finitely Repeated Games and the Role of Initial Doubt 7.7 Imperfect Observability of Moves 7.8 Repeated Wines in Large Decentralized Groups 7.9 Repeated Games with Incomplete Information 7.10 Continuous Time 7.11 Evolutionary Simulation of Repeated Games Exercises 8. Bargaining and Cooperation in Two-Person Games 8.1 Noncooperative Foundations of Cooperative Game Theory 8.2 Two-Person Bargaining Problems and the Nash Bargaining Solution 8.3 Interpersonal Comparisons of Weighted Utility 8.4 Transferable Utility 8.5 Rational Threats 8.6 Other Bargaining Solutions 8.7 An Alternating-Offer Bargaining Game 8.8 An Alternating-Offer Game with Incomplete Information 8.9 A Discrete Alternating-Offer Game 8.10 Renegotiation Exercises 9. Coalitions in Cooperative Games 9.1 Introduction to Coalitional Analysis 9.2 Characteristic Functions with Transferable Utility 9.3 The Core 9.4 The Shapkey Value 9.5 Values with Cooperation Structures 9.6 Other Solution Concepts 9.7 Colational Games with Nontransferable Utility 9.8 Cores without Transferable Utility 9.9 Values without Transferable Utility Exercises Bibliographic Note 10. Cooperation under Uncertainty 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Concepts of Efficiency 10.3 An Example 10.4 Ex Post Inefficiency and Subsequent Oilers 10.5 Computing Incentive-Efficient Mechanisms 10.6 Inscrutability and Durability 10.7 Mechanism Selection by an Informed Principal 10.8 Neutral Bargaining Solutions 10.9 Dynamic Matching Processes with Incomplete Information Exercises Bibliography Index

博弈论 : 矛盾冲突分析 = Game theory : analysis of conflict

Agent technology has been considered as an important approach for developing distributed intelligent manufacturing systems. A number of researchers have attempted to apply agent technology to manufacturing enterprise integration, supply chain management, manufacturing planning, scheduling and control, materials handling, and holonic manufacturing systems. This paper gives a brief survey of some related projects in this area, and discusses some key issues in developing agent-based manufacturing systems such as agent technology for enterprise integration and supply chain management, agent encapsulation, system architectures, dynamic system reconfiguration, learning, design and manufacturability assessments, distributed dynamic scheduling, integration of planning and scheduling, concurrent scheduling and execution, factory control structures, potential tools and standards for developing agent-based manufacturing systems. An extensive annotated bibliography is provided.

Agent-Based Systems for Intelligent Manufacturing: A State-of-the-Art Survey

Software, system and methods for managing a distributed network (10) environment including a plurality of computers (22,24) interconnected by a network link (24), where at least some of the computers include a layered communication protocol stack (92) for providing a data interface between an application program (98, 122) and the network link, the communications stack having a transport protocol layer (124) for providing an end-to-end communications connection The invention includes a control module (132) and a plurality of agents (70), each agent being associated with one of the computers and adapted to dynamically monitor the associated computer at a data transmission point between an application program running on the computer and the transport protocol layer and repeatedly communicate with the control module (132) in order to effect management of the distributed network system The invented software, system and methods may also include a messaging feature for providing users, IT personnel, or various management systems with informative messages concerning network conditions and network resources

Software, systems and methods for managing a distributed network

This paper surveys and analyzes the state of the art of agent-mediated electronic commerce (e-commerce), concentrating particularly on the business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) aspects. From the consumer buying behavior perspective, agents are being used in the following activities: need identification, product brokering, buyer coalition formation, merchant brokering, and negotiation. The roles of agents in B2B e-commerce are discussed through the business-to-business transaction model that identifies agents as being employed in partnership formation, brokering, and negotiation. Having identified the roles for agents in B2C and B2B e-commerce, some of the key underpinning technologies of this vision are highlighted. Finally, we conclude by discussing the future directions and potential impediments to the wide-scale adoption of agent-mediated e-commerce.

Agent-Mediated Electronic Commerce

A method and system for selectively connecting proximately located telecommunications units are disclosed. The method and system may be used in a location aware telecommunications system that can determine the location of a telecommunications unit (TU) being used within the system. A first TU may be connected to a second TU when the first and second TUs are within a predetermined distance of each other and when a first user associated with the first TU may be connected to a second user associated with the second TU on a graph representing individual relationships, such as an acquaintance graph or genealogical tree. The connection may further be based on whether the first and second users have a less than a maximum threshold degree of separation within the relationship graph.

Method and system for connecting mobile users based on degree of separation

The multiagent systems approach of knowledge- level cooperation between autonomous agents promises significant benefits to distributed systems engineering, such as enhanced interoperability, scalability, and reconfigurability. However, thus far, because of the innate difficulty of constructing multiagent systems, this promise has been largely unrealized. Hence there is an emerging desire among agent developers to move away from developing point solutions to point problems in favor of developing methodologies and toolkits for building distributed multiagent systems. This philosophy led to the development of the ZEUS Agent Building Toolkit, which facilitates the rapid development of collaborative agent applications through the provision of a library of agent- level components and an environment to support the agent-building process. The ZEUS toolkit is a synthesis of established agent technologies with some novel solutions to provide an integrated collaborative agent-building environment.

Zeus: A toolkit for building distributed multiagent systems

This paper sets out, ambitiously, to present a brief reappraisal of software agents research. Evidently, software agent technology has promised much. However, some five years after the word ‘agent’ came into vogue in the popular computing press, it is perhaps time the efforts in this fledgling area are thoroughly evaluated with a view to refocusing future efforts. We do not pretend to have done this in this paper—but we hope we have sown the first seeds towards a thorough first five-year report on the software agents area. The paper contains some strong views not necessarily widely accepted by the agent community.

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A perspective on software agents research

The innate difficulty of constructing multi-agent systems has motivated agent developers to move away from developing point solutions to point problems in favour of developing methodologies and toolkits for building distributed multi-agent systems. This philosophy led to the development of the ZEUS Agent Building Toolkit, which facilitates the rapid development of collaborative agent applications through the provision of a library of agent-level components and an environment to support the agent building process. The ZEUS toolkit is a synthesis of established agent technologies with some novel solutions to provide an integrated collaborative agent building environment.

ZEUS: a toolkit and approach for building distributed multi-agent systems

A system for building collaborative software agents is provided with a set of editors (305) for capturing data for installation in the individual agents. The collaborative software agents will normally form a community, including some standard agents (315), provided by the system, and will collaborate to provide functionality in a domain selected by the user. Each collaborative software agent built by the system is provided with co-ordination policies, selected by the user, and represented by a co-ordination graph (310). A single collaborative software agent can be provided with more than one collaborative policy and is capable of running more than one collaborative policy simultaneously with different agents of the system. An exception handler flags an exception during use of the collaborative agents in the relevant domain when the value of a variable for an agent conflicts with a relevant constraint. Alternatively, the exception handler flags an exception when the resource and time constraints cannot be met by allocation of tasks between the collaborative agents. Communities of software agents built within a system might be used to launch and/or manage telecommunications services or to control a chemical process, for example.

Software system generation

A community of collaborative software agents works together in a domain to provide functionality such as provision of communications services or control of a chemical process. A scheduler is built into each collaborative agent which schedules tasks allocated to that particular agent and tasks sub-allocated by that agent. The scheduler has a mechanism for over-booking tasks for any one agent. It can also make tentative bookings which can be overwritten or timed out.

Divine T. Ndumu

Papers

Zeus: A toolkit for building distributed multiagent systems

A perspective on software agents research

ZEUS: a toolkit and approach for building distributed multi-agent systems

Software system generation

Scheduler for a software system having means for allocating tasks