Articles

The simulator, acting as a server, accepts action commands from fully distributed clients (agents) throughout a 100-millisecond cycle and then updates the world state all at once at the end of the cycle. Agents receive sensory perceptions from the simulator asynchronously and at unpredictable intervals. We view robotic soccer as an example of a periodic team synchronization (PTS) domain. We define PTS domains as domains with the following characteristics: There is a team of autonomous agents A that collaborate toward the achievement of a joint long-term goal G. Periodically, the team can synchronize with no restrictions on communication: The agents can in effect inform each other of their entire internal states and decision-making mechanisms with no adverse effects on the achievement of G. These periods of full communication can be thought of as times at which the team is "offline."