Abstract: The state of the art in the agent field is at the frontier of deploying real intelligent agents, able to build their own understanding of the world and of associated processes. Maybe that goal can be achieved through individual power: a framing concept for the agent's inner capabilities to achieve dominant goals. The research on individual power started from the BDI model and led to the distinction between external and internal factors in the agent's behaviour: while the former depends on the relation the agent has with its environment (including peers) and ties in with social power, the latter links…up to the agent control and is rather less understood. In the individual power study, the focus is set on the integration of the agent's will, commitment and control structure. Such integration can be interpreted as an extension of the classic belief-desire-intention trilogy. This paper describes an experiment about the integration of will and commitment management in the agent's control structure. The experiment consists of two teams of agents, competing for resource gathering. While one team features reactive control, the other team uses new ideas exploring meta-agency for agent control and will for behaviour design. This experiment illustrates the integration and a virtual application of previous work on these subjects. The meta-agent and mental states based control is proven able to define flexible and effective behaviours. The agent's will, by centralising the management of commitments, simplifies the implementation, debugging and interpretation of such behaviours.
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Abstract: We present the extended Mental States Framework (EMSF) for artificial cognitive agents able to include a static and a dynamic definition of mental states at large. These (individual and collective) states are defined in terms of basic components (attributes, laws and controls) organized on a table. Every state is viewed according to two perspectives, the declarative one, containing definitions (attributes, laws), and the prescriptive one having associated control mechanisms for triggering, filtering and selecting. At the same time we introduce a theory of artificial minds, where behaviour is based on the interplay between the space of mental states and the…space of agent architectures. Every social action (and also of an individual agent) emerges as the behaviour generated by the causal relations among the corresponding (individual and collective) mental states of that agent, and also by the dynamics of their interactions. The ongoing research around EMSF crosses several disciplines and has been supported by listening and observation (via Clinical Psychology) and by the practice of extensive experimentation (Agent Based Design). Recently, progress was made around the role of attributes and the side-effects we can envisage within the context of Agent Software Engineering.
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Keywords: Agent theory, mental states framework, attribute experimentation
Abstract: Autonomous agents are being used in an increasing number of applications. The agents operate in complex environments and, over time, conflicts inevitably occur among them. Negotiation is the predominant process for resolving conflicts. This paper presents a generic negotiation model for autonomous agents that handles multi-party, multi-issue and single or repeated rounds. The model is based on computationally tractable assumptions and accounts for a tight integration of the individual capability of planning and the social capability of negotiation. This paper also describes an experiment conducted to evaluate the model in different types of situations. The experimental results confirmed a number…of well-documented conclusions about human negotiation.
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Abstract: This paper addresses collaborative learning in the medical domain, focusing on the evaluation of a component specially devised to promote collaborative learning using the AMPLIA system. AMPLIA is an intelligent multi-agent environment that supports diagnostic reasoning and the modeling of diagnostic hypotheses in the medical domain. Recently it has been extended with a new component providing aid on workgroup formation. Workgroups are built considering the individual aspects of students as the learning style, performance, affective state, personality traits, and also group aspects such as acceptance and social skills. This paper presents and discusses the results of an experiment evaluating the…quality of workgroups that was composed according to suggestions provided by the system.
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Keywords: Collaborative learning systems, group processes, medical education, problem-based learning
Abstract: This paper introduces AMPLIA, an intelligent learning environment employed as a resource in medical students' training. The development of AMPLIA raised several research topics, due to the convergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Learning Environments. The core topics are: probabilistic diagnostic learning in the medical area, application of teaching strategies based on Pedagogical Negotiation (PN), construction of cognitive student models with probabilistic beliefs, and application of interoperability methods for pedagogical agents, and tutoring systems integration. An important aspect of AMPLIA is the utilization of PN as the main form of interaction. The impact of this approach on the system dynamics…and on the student's learning is presented in detail. Considering the importance of cooperative work during the learning process, we describe how AMPLIA is used to enable cooperation. The description is based on experiments carried out with AMPLIA and its users. The main results of these experiments are reported as well.
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Keywords: Intelligent learning environments, pedagogical negotiation, education and medicine