An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems

by Michael Wooldridge

The study of multi-agent systems (MAS) focuses on systems in which many intelligent agents interact with each other.  These agents are considered to be autonomous entities such as software programs or robots.  Their interactions can either be cooperative (for example as in an ant colony) or selfish (as in a free market economy).  This book assumes only basic knowledge of algorithms and discrete maths, both of which are taught as standard in the first or second year of computer science degree programmes.  A basic knowledge of artificial intelligence would useful to help understand some of the issues, but is not essential. The book’s main aims are: After reading the book the student should understand:

Genres: Computer Science, Technical, Textbooks, Nonfiction, Artificial Intelligence, Technology

488 pages, Paperback

First published May 13, 2002

Reviews

[genotypewriter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Intelligent Agents is a pseudo research area in computer science because an unimaginable amount of literature has been published on it since its birth but there has been no significant advancement of it yet.

I was hoping that this book would spare me the Intelligent Agents fairytale and get to the grit but it didn't. Wooldridge being an ardent fanboy of IAs, it was my fault to expect otherwise.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great field, but the book is far too sporadic. It attempts to cover so many topics that it inundates the reader. Some chapters are well-written and clear, and some are simply a hodgepodge of examples with no connections to the text. Some of the notation in the book is also quite cumbersome. One thing that was great is the use of mind-maps at the end of the chapter to show the topics and sub-topics covered. If you take a look at these, you'll see how it's easy for this rather short text to take on more than it could handle.

[Sarah]

I proofread this book for the publisher.