Taylor 1 Paul H. Taylor Thesis Research 30 October 2011 Abstract.

This research will focus on the development of multi-agent systems comprised of agents from different origins, the born and the made. The study and development of this system will not lead to space, but the viscous medium of the emergent field, the control of which will lead to design. In turn, the control of this field will lead to form. The methodology by which this study will proceed is through the lens of computational simulations manufactured through code. Computation is built around the three processes of theory, abstraction, and design. Theory is where objects (agents) and their relationships are defined and schemes are proved (through pseudocode) about them. Abstraction is reflected in the definition of models of physical processes. Design is the specification, implementation, and testing of the system (form). These three processes will be instrumental to the development of this research. The agents that are to make up this emergent system are agents in the sense that they are semiautonomous entities capable of making local decisions and acting upon those decisions. Agent-based computation, as a tool, shows great potential as a technique for addressing problems where linear processes have fallen short. Distributed, complex, and heterogeneous problems require equivalent solutions. Agency allows for the simplification of these multifaceted matters by the reduction of the problem into smaller, simpler sub-problems. The resulting modularity of the problem in turn allows for modular, scalable, adaptable, changeable and complex, emergent, innovative solutions. The suggested methodology will seek to define sub-problems of relationships between the agents, simulate solutions of those interactions, and realize those findings within our physical environment. At this stage psuedocode (a mixture of coded commands and English) and computational models (in this case real-time simulations) will be the processes by which this research will be investigated. Keywords: multi-agent systems, agent-based computation, code, heterogeneous agent interaction, distributed control, behavioral systems, complexity, emergence.