In this paper we present the model-checking module of decision-making models in the frame of ModelsCreator, an educational modelling environment. The model-checking module aims to assist young students to construct qualitative models for decision-making problems solving. We specify the decision-making Models that may be built and we explain the model checking mechanism. The model-checking mechanism compares the student model with the reference model constructed by the teacher and provides immediate advice to the student to help him create a valid model. So, the model-checking module of a decision-making model aims to facilitate student to structure convincing decisions in the proper situations.

We consider the problem of efficiently allocating complex tasks consisting of interdependent subtasks in large multiagent systems. Complex tasks are modeled as distributed constraint optimization problems and agent teams that can potentially serve them are located using a search method that efficiently combines overlay networks of gateways and routing indices. In this paper we make a preliminary investigation of the trade-off between constraint reasoning and dynamic reorganization of agent teams aiming at maximizing the efficiency of the task allocation mechanism. We study experimentally a number of increasingly sophisticated constraint solving methods and compare them to a simple local search method that employs early reorganization. Preliminary results show that in heavily constrained cases the latter approach is more costeffective.

This work proposes a method for allocating temporally interdependent tasks to homogeneous or heterogeneous cooperative agents in dynamic large-scale networks. This method views searching, task allocation and scheduling as an integrated problem that has to be efficiently solved in such networks. Solving the general problem optimally in a decentralized way is very hard and can only be solved by a centralized method, be approximated by means of heuristics, or by relaxations of the original problem. Our method facilitates effective searching through the dynamic assignment of gateway roles to agents and the exploitation of routing indices. In combination to searching, it exploits distributed constraint satisfaction techniques and dynamic re-organization of agent teams to efficiently handle the allocation of complex tasks with interdependent subtasks.

Groups of collaborative agents need to have a single view of the world to act as single entities. Building common awareness in agent groups involves reconciling different views of the world and deciding a single view that every agent within the group accepts. The notion of collective belief has been used extensively in formal models for collaborative activity to deal with group awareness. However, collective belief alone is not sufficient for organized groups to act as single entities. In human organizations, members of groups accept that certain states hold based on shared group practices/policies and beliefs of individual agents. These acceptances are formed even if some members of the group do not believe that the corresponding states hold. This paper distinguishes between individual beliefs and group acceptances in multi-agent systems in well-organized settings. It introduces state recognition recipes that drive groups within organizations to create common awareness, explains the exploitation of these recipes and presents an example that shows the potential of the approach.

Recently there is an increased interest in social agency and in designing and building agent organizations. In this paper we view an organization as a set of interrelated groups. Each group has an explicit structure in terms of positions and their interrelations. Agents in groups deliberate socially, distinguishing between their individual and group attitudes: Each agent is able to agree on and accept certain attitudes as attitudes of the groups it belongs. Acting as group member, an agent must be able to act on the basis of these group mental attitudes rather than on the basis of its individual beliefs and goals. This issue, although ultimately important, it has not given much attention in agent community. The objective of this paper is (a) to propose a generic design pattern for building agent organizations in which the constituting groups build and maintain their own group goals and beliefs according to their needs and the environmental conditions, (b) to present the functionality of social deliberating agents that act as group members in organized settings, and (c) to report on the development of a prototype system that comprises agents that implement such a kind of social deliberation.

For groups of agents to act collaboratively, they need to recognize the need for collaboration, decide on the method to be followed for achieving goal states, assign responsibilities to subgroups and individuals, and so on, until responsibilities that can be fulfilled by individuals are reached. Aiming to support collaborative activity of humans within organized settings, this paper introduces a set of constructs for specifying organizational structures and introduces an explicit representation of individual and collaborative responsibilities within organizations. We conjecture that group members create common awareness towards recognizing the need for collaboration by forming group acceptances. Acceptances are formed by means of shared practices and beliefs of individual agents. The paper introduces state recognition recipes that drive group members within organizations to form acceptances, and thoroughly explains the exploitation of these recipes in conjunction to state achievement recipes for achieving goal states and fulfilling responsibilities collaboratively.

This paper, based on the organizational model proposed in [2], investigates the organization oriented programming paradigm. The approach proposed, in contrast to other approaches, emphasizes on group thinking. To show how the organization oriented programming paradigm is applied the paper describes the implementation of the asynchronous backtracking algorithm used in distributed CSPs.

Groups of collaborative agents need to create group beliefs (acceptances) in order to act as a single entity. The notion of mutual or collective belief, which has been used extensively to cope with group belief, is not appropriate in organized settings where group members exploit shared policies to accept that certain states hold, even if some members of the group do not believe them. This paper distinguishes between beliefs and acceptances, introduces policies for acceptances, and investigates communication requirements towards forming acceptances.

Groups of collaborative agents within organizations need to create group awareness in order to act as a single entity. The notion of collective belief, which has been used extensively to cope with group awareness, is not appropriate in organized settings where group members accept that certain states hold based on shared practices, even if some members of the group do not believe that these states hold. This paper distinguishes between individual beliefs and group acceptances and introduces state recognition recipes that drive groups within organizations to create common awareness.

Roles have been used both as an intuitive concept in order to analyze multi-agent systems and model inter-agent social activity as well as a formal structure in order to implement coherent and robust teams. The extensive use of roles in implemented systems evidences their importance in multi-agent systems design and implementation. In this paper we emphasize the importance of roles for multi-agent systems to act in complex domains, identify some of their properties and we review work done concerning specification and exploitation of roles in agent-oriented system engineering methodologies, in formal models about agent social activity, and in multi-agent systems that are deployed in dynamic and unpredictable domains.

The social context of any human comprises a set of groups that affect his/her behaviour or he/she has an interest in. The social position of humans is specified by the positions they occupy in one or more groups inside their social context, where each position corresponds to a specific role. The management of the social context of humans has become quite important due to its increasing complexity and dynamics. The aim of this paper is to present a prototype system towards empowering humans to deliberatively form and manage their social context and position via personal agents that act as their representatives. Personal agents represent humans and form their “digital analogue” within organizations. The whole approach is based on a role-based model concerning consistency and reliability of role-playing within a social context.

Human centered systems must focus attention in roles, users and tasks, aiming to making the full potential of computing ubiquitous. The paper proposes a generic design pattern for such systems, incorporating digital assistants and human representatives. These agents collaborate with people and deliberate socially for helping them to (a) participate in numerous physical and social contexts consistently and coherently, (b) build explicit social structures governed by social laws (i.e. agents values, permissions, preferences, contextual constraints), (c) deal with the dynamics of the activitiesenvironment and (d) manage the distributivity of the activities and environment.

Roles have been used both as an intuitive concept in order to analyze multi-agent systems and model inter-agent social activity as well as a formal structure in order to implement coherent and robust teams. The extensive use of roles in implemented systems evidences their importance in multi-agent systems design and implementation. In this paper we emphasize the importance of roles for multi-agent systems to act in complex domains, identify some of their properties and we review work done concerning specification and exploitation of roles in agent-oriented system engineering methodologies, in formal models about agent social activity, and in multi-agent systems that are deployed in dynamic and unpredictable domains.

SUMMARY This paper presents the ModelsCreator decision-making module. The module aims to help young students to build qualitative models for decision-making and communicate with their teachers in the most effective way. The paper specifies the decision-making models that may be built and thoroughly describes the model checking, diagnosis and advice providing mechanisms. The modelchecking mechanism compares the student models with a reference model provided by a teacher and provides active feedback to the student in order to help him/her construct a valid model. Therefore the model-checking mechanism of the decision-making module aims to facilitate students to form valid decisions in the appropriate situations, given teachers’ reference models.

Roles have been used both as an intuitive concept in order to analyze multi-agent systems and as a formal structure in order to implement coherent and robust teams. The extensive use of roles in implemented systems evidences their importance in multiagent systems design and implementation. In this paper we emphasize the importance of roles for multiagent systems to act in complex domains, identify some of their properties and we review work done concerning specification and exploitation of roles in agent-oriented system engineering methodologies and in multi-agent systems that are deployed in dynamic and unpredictable domains.

Cooperative activity involves collaboration and communication. Through the stages of collaboration, agents may play different roles either for performing domain tasks, or for forming decisions concerning the collaborative activity itself. Collaboration and communication can be enhanced if dependencies between agents' intentions are captured. Role-specification is expected to be a vital factor towards this goal. This is evidenced by roles' importance in many implemented systems. Agents' coordination, plan monitoring and re-planning in these systems rely on contextual information and agents' roles. However, there is not an implemented generic agent architecture that realizes the importance of roles for flexible cooperative activity. This paper shows how the ICAGENT development framework has been evolved to support cooperative activity through representing and reasoning about multi-role recipes.