An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems

"A thoroughly revised and updated book, written by one of the leading researchers in the field. This excellent book provides a wonderful introduction and a comprehensive exposition of the increasingly important field of multi-agent systems." -Professor Nick Jennings FREng Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Group, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton Multiagent systems are a new paradigm for understanding and building distributed systems, where it is assumed that the computational components are autonomous: able to control their own behaviour in the furtherance of their own goals. The first edition of An Introduction to Multiagent Systems was the first contemporary textbook in the area, and became the standard undergraduate reference work for the field. This second edition has been extended with substantial new material on recent developments in the field, and has been revised and updated throughout. It provides a comprehensive, coherent, and readable introduction to the theory and practice of multiagent systems, while presenting a wealth of discussion topics and pointers into more advanced issues for those wanting to dig deeper. Key new features include: dedicated new chapters on ontologies, voting, auctions, bargaining, coalition formation, and argumentation, reflecting recent research directions and new results; "mind maps" to illustrate key concepts and ideas - an essential study and revision aid; 590 literature references, revised, updated, and extended to reflect the state of the art in agent research and development. Designed and written specifically for computing undergraduates, the book comes with a rich repository of online teaching materials, including a complete set of lecture slides.