Towards a taxonomy of agents and multi-agent systems

ABSTRACT

This paper consolidates existing research and provides a first step in the establishment of a comprehensive, multi-agent system taxonomy. This taxonomy addresses characteristics of the overall agent environment, the agent population, and the characteristics of the agents in the population. Reasoning, belief, and cooperative mechanisms are all addressed as are the environmental characteristics in which the agents are situated. Areas for additional taxonomy development work are identified along with possible applications of the taxonomy in future research.

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INDEX TERMS

Keywords:
agent, architecture, multi-agent system, taxonomy