Structured game representations have recently attracted interest as models for multi-agent artificial intelligence scenarios, with rational behavior most commonly characterized by Nash equilibria. This paper presents efficient, exact algorithms for computing Nash equilibria in structured game representations, including both graphical games and multi-agent influence diagrams (MAIDs). The algorithms are derived from a continuation method for normal-form and extensive-form games due to Govindan and Wilson; they follow a trajectory through a space of perturbed games and their equilibria, exploiting game structure through fast computation of the Jacobian of the payoff function. They are theoretically guaranteed to find at least one equilibrium of the game, and may find more. Our approach provides the first efficient algorithm for computing exact equilibria in graphical games with arbitrary topology, and the first algorithm to exploit fine-grained structural properties of MAIDs. Experimental results are presented demonstrating the effectiveness of the algorithms and comparing them to predecessors. The running time of the graphical game algorithm is similar to, and often better than, the running time of previous approximate algorithms. The algorithm for MAIDs can effectively solve games that are much larger than those solvable by previous methods.

Open distributed multi-agent systems are gaining interest in the academic community and in industry. In such open settings, agents are often coordinated using standardized agent conversation protocols. The representation of such protocols (for analysis, validation, monitoring, etc) is an important aspect of multi-agent applications. Recently, Petri nets have been shown to be an interesting approach to such representation, and radically different approaches using Petri nets have been proposed. However, their relative strengths and weaknesses have not been examined. Moreover, their scalability and suitability for different tasks have not been addressed. This paper addresses both these challenges. First, we analyze existing Petri net representations in terms of their scalability and appropriateness for overhearing, an important task in monitoring open multi-agent systems. Then, building on the insights gained, we introduce a novel representation using Colored Petri nets that explicitly represent legal joint conversation states and messages. This representation approach offers significant improvements in scalability and is particularly suitable for overhearing. Furthermore, we show that this new representation offers a comprehensive coverage of all conversation features of FIPA conversation standards. We also present a procedure for transforming AUML conversation protocol diagrams (a standard human-readable representation), to our Colored Petri net representation.

The 2005 Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems Conference (AAMAS 2005) was held July 25-29, 2005, at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands. This report reviews the activities of that conference, including the workshop and tutorial programs, the main conference and poster tracks, the industry paper track, the demonstration track and sponsor demonstration sessions, the invited talks, exhibition, doctoral mentoring program, as well the sponsorship and scholarships activities.

A multiagent system may be thought of as an artificial society of autonomous software agents and we can apply concepts borrowed from welfare economics and social choice theory to assess the social welfare of such an agent society. In this paper, we study an abstract negotiation framework where agents can agree on multilateral deals to exchange bundles of indivisible resources. We then analyse how these deals affect social welfare for different instances of the basic framework and different interpretations of the concept of social welfare itself. In particular, we show how certain classes of deals are both sufficient and necessary to guarantee that a socially optimal allocation of resources will be reached eventually.

This article introduces Pyro, an open-source Python robotics toolkit for exploring topics in AI and robotics. We present key abstractions that allow Pyro controllers to run unchanged on a variety of real and simulated robots. We demonstrate Pyro's use in a set of curricular modules. We then describe how Pyro can provide a smooth transition for the student from symbolic agents to real-world robots, which significantly reduces the cost of learning to use robots. Finally we show how Pyro has been successfully integrated into existing AI and robotics courses.

(MAICS 2006). AISB'06 Symposium on Exploration Antecedents and Consequences of Versus Exploitation in Naturally Inspired Emotion. (IIS 2006). (ASM 2006). Please Help Us Celebrate 50 Years of AI at IAAI-06 Join Us in Boston!

Utrecht is more than 1,300 years old and located in the center of the Netherlands, about 40 minutes by train from Amsterdam. School (EASSS 2005) for about 120 students, which was organized by Europe's coordination network for agent systems (AgentLink) and was as successful as previous summer schools in Utrecht, Saarbruecken, Prague, Barcelona, Bologna, and Liverpool. Overall, in the theory and practice of AAMAS 2005 had 778 academic and autonomous agents and multiagent industrial participants from 44 countries systems. AAMAS 2005 is the fourth on six continents. The main room of this can with some justification AAMAS 2005 was held on July building, in which the Treaty of claim to be one of the most active.

These workshops, although quite specialized, have covered areas of great interest for the conference delegates, namely: "Multiagent System Robotics" (MARS), "Biosignal Processing and Classification" (BPC), and "Artificial Neural Networks and Intelligent Information Processing" (ANNIIP). In the program of this conference for publication in the proceedings were included oral presentations (full and for presentation at the conference; papers and short papers) and posters, of these, 166 papers were organized in three simultaneous selected for oral presentation (67 full tracks: "Intelligent Control Systems papers and 99 short papers) and 63 papers and Optimization," "Robotics and Automation," were accepted for poster presentation. Furthermore, less than 60 percent, and the full paper (ICINCO 2005) was held in Barcelona ICINCO 2005 included acceptance ratio was 17 percent.

Robotics projects coupled with agent-oriented trends in artificial intelligence education have the potential to make introductory AI courses at liberal arts schools the gateway for a large new generation of AI practitioners. However, this vision's achievement requires programming libraries and low-cost platforms that are readily accessible to undergraduates and easily maintainable by instructors at sites with few dedicated resources. This article presents and evaluates one contribution toward implementing this vision: the RCXLisp library. The library was designed to support programming of the Lego Mindstorms platform in AI courses with the goal of using introductory robotics to motivate undergraduates' understanding of AI concepts within the agent-design paradigm. The library's evaluation reflects four years of student feedback on its use in a liberal-arts AI course whose audience covers a wide variety of majors. To help establish a context for judging RCXLisp's effectiveness this article also provides a sketch of the Mindstormsbased laboratory in which the library is used.

Although the Lego RCX's has helped guide Sony's own choice of Hitachi H8 microcontroller lists at 16 megahertz next-generation AIBO features and software and 32 kilobytes of memory, the overhead support. As for two-legged platforms, the University of the firmware and interpreter yield of Freiburg has already prototyped a about 10 kilobytes and 500 hertz throughput soccer team of Robosapiens running from for a typical user--slightly better with alternative handheld computers.