Frances Brazier

AAMAS Conference 2011 Conference Paper

AgentScope: Multi-Agent Systems Development in Focus

• Elth Ogston
• Frances Brazier

Multi-agent systems form the basis of many innovative large-scale distributed applications. The development of such applications requires a careful balance of a wide range of concerns: a detailed understanding of the behaviour of the abstract algorithms being employed, a knowledge of the effects and costs of operating in a distributed environment, and an expertise in the performance requirements of the application itself. Experimental work plays a key role in the process of designing such systems. This paper examines the multi-agent systems development cycle from a distributed systems perspective. A survey of recent experimental studies finds that a large proportion of work on the design of multi-agent systems is focused on the analytical and simulation phases of development. This paper advocates an alternative more comprehensive development cycle, which extends from theoretical studies to simulations, emulations, demonstrators and finally staged deployment. AgentScope, a tool that supports the experimental stages of multiagents systems development and facilitates long-term dispersed research efforts, is introduced. AgentScope consists of a small set of interfaces on which experimental work can be built independently of a particular type of platform. The aim is to make not only agent code but also experimental scenarios, and metrics reusable, both between projects and over simulation, emulation and demonstration platforms. An example gossip-based sampling experiment demonstrates reusability, showing the ease with which an experiment can be defined, modified into a comparison study, and ported between a simulator and an actual agent-operating system.

AAMAS Conference 2008 Conference Paper

Engineering Large-scale Distributed Auctions

• Peter Gradwell
• Michel Oey
• Reinier Timmer
• Julian Padget
• Frances Brazier

The functional characteristics of market-based solutions are typically best observed through the medium of simulation, data-gathering and subsequent visualization. We previously developed a simulation of multiple distributed auctions to handle resource allocation (in fact, bundles of unspecified goods) and in this paper we want to deploy an equivalent system as a distributed application. There are two notable problems with the simulation-first, application-second approach: (i) the simulation cannot reasonably take account of network effects, and (ii) how to recreate in a distributed application the characteristics demonstrated by the mechanism in the simulation. We describe: (i) the refactorings employed in the process of transforming a uni-processor lock-step simulation into a multiprocessor asynchronous system, (ii) some preliminary performance indicators, and (iii) some reflections on our experience which may be useful in building MAS in general.

AILAW Journal 2004 Journal Article

Anonymity and software agents: An interdisciplinary challenge

• Frances Brazier
• Anja Oskamp
• Corien Prins
• Maurice Schellekens
• Niek Wijngaards

Abstract Software agents that play a role in E-commerce and E-government applications involving the Internet often contain information about the identity of their human user such as credit cards and bank accounts. This paper discusses whether this is necessary: whether human users and software agents are allowed to be anonymous under the relevant legal regimes and whether an adequate interaction and balance between law and anonymity can be realised from both the perspective of Computer Systems and the perspective of Law.

AILAW Journal 2004 Journal Article

Law-abiding and integrity on the Internet: A case for agents

• Frances Brazier
• Anja Oskamp
• Corien Prins
• Maurice Schellekens
• Niek Wijngaards

Abstract Software agents extend the current, information-based Internet to include autonomous mobile processing. In most countries such processes, i. e. , software agents are, however, without an explicit legal status. Many of the legal implications of their actions (e. g. , gathering information, negotiating terms, performing transactions) are not well understood. One important characteristic of mobile software agents is that they roam the Internet: they often run on agent platforms of others. There often is no pre-existing relation between the “owner” of a running agent’s process and the owner of the agent platform on which an agent process runs. When conflicts arise, the position of the agent platform administrator is not clear: is he or she allowed to slow down the process or possibly remove it from the system? Can the interests of the user of the agent be protected? This article explores legal and technical perspectives in protecting the integrity and availability of software agents and agent platforms.

AAMAS Conference 2003 Conference Paper

A Method for Decentralized Clustering in Large Multi-Agent Systems

• Elth Ogston
• Benno Overeinder
• Maarten van Steen
• Frances Brazier

KER Journal 1998 Journal Article

Agent Systems and Applications

• RUTH AYLETT
• Frances Brazier
• NICK JENNINGS
• Michael Luck
• HYACINTH NWANA
• CHRIS PREIST

As the number of deployed multi-agent applications increases, further and better experience with the technology is gained, enabling a strong evaluation of the field from a more practical perspective. In particular, questions relating to how the theory of multi-agent systems impacts on practice, and how the practical development itself compares with other technologies, can be answered in the light of a heightened level of maturity. Given the tensions between theoreticians and practitioners in computing in general, let alone their spats in AI or multi-agent systems in particular, the discussion on agent systems and applications was both vigorous and enthusiastic