Origins:

Ubiquity: Reduction of the computational cost.

Interconnection: Computer systems form networks of large distributed systems.
Intelligence: The complexity of tasks can be automated and delegated to computers.
Delegation: The judgment of computer systems is accepted frequently.
Human orientation: Use of concepts and metaphors that reflect how we understand the
world.

Definition:
Multi-agent systems are formed by agents and their environment. Normally,
multiagent system research refers to software agents. However, agents in a multi-
agent system could be robots, humans or human teams. A multi-agent system may
contain teams of combined human agents.
Agents can be divided into types ranging from simple to complex. The categories
include:
Passive agents: "agent without objectives" (as obstacle, block or key in any simple
simulation).
Active agents: with simple objectives (such as birds in flocks, or wolf-sheep in
prey-prey model).
Cognitive agents: (complex calculations):

The agents' environments can also be organized according to properties such as

accessibility (if it is possible to gather complete information about the
environment), determinism (if an action causes a defined effect), dynamics (how
many entities influence the environment in the moment), discretion (if the number
of possible actions in the environment is finite), episicity (if the actions of the
agent in certain periods of time influence other periods), [7] and dimensionality
(if the spatial characteristics are important factors of the environment and the
agent considers the space in his decision making). [8] Agent actions are usually
mediated through an appropriate middleware. This middleware offers a first-class
design abstraction for multi-agent systems, which provides means to control access
to resources and agent coordination.

An agent is a computer system capable of acting autonomously to satisfy its

objectives and goals, while it is persistently located
in your environment.
Computational systems capable of performing actions autonomously in some
environment, in order to achieve a series of objectives that have delegates.
Computational systems capable of performing actions autonomously and flexibly in
some environment, in order to achieve a series of objectives that have delegates.

Each agent will have their own objectives and motivations.

The success of the interaction will require cooperation, coordination and
negotiation (precisely the qualities of the people).
The main interest of the agents is that they are autonomous (capable of acting
independently).
An agent is strongly linked and in continuous interaction with its environment:
perception, decision, action, perception, decision.
Understanding as flexible: Reactive, proactive and social.
A reactive system must maintain a continuous interaction with the environment and
respond to changes that occur (in time).
In a fixed environment, an agent should not worry about the outcome of his actions,
he can act without thinking about the consequences.

Features:
Autonomy:
Agents act without direct human intervention or other agents and have some
kind of control over their actions and internal state. Traditional software runs in
interactive environments, where it responds to direct commands from the user.
Reactivity:
A reactive system is one that maintains constant interaction with its
environment, and responds to the changes that occur in this. Particularly, the
ability to emit an immediate action upon receiving a signal, or perceiving a state
in the environment, is what characterizes the reactive agents. The reactivity in
the agents allows quick, crucial actions in real time systems, which do not merit
applying complex rules. This property is essential in environments that change
permanently. In general, building applications for dynamic environments is not a
simple task.
He perceives the environment in which he is immersed and responds in a timely
manner to changes that take place in him (to act properly an agent must be able to
know at all times the "world" that surrounds him).
A reactive system must maintain a continuous interaction with the environment
and respond to changes that occur (in time).
In a fixed environment, an agent should not worry about the outcome of his
actions, he can act without thinking about the consequences.
The real environments (the interesting ones) are dynamic, their elements
change, their information is incomplete and / or uncertain.
In dynamic environments, the possibility of an unexpected result must be
taken into account (ask yourself if you must carry out the planned action).
Initiative / Proactivity:
Reactivity in an environment is relatively simple (Stimulus = Response) if
all the possible stimuli can be described, since for each stimulus the logic
representing the response would be constructed. But as one of the main objectives
of the systems based on agents is that they act for us, their behavior, in some
cases, must be based on objectives. In that sense, the agents must try to take the
actions that allow reaching the goals or objectives of the system. For this, their
actions can not only be directed by stimuli, but they must be able to take
initiatives, plan actions, among other things, in order to achieve the objectives
of the system. This behavior is called proactive.
It has to have an entrepreneurial character and take the initiative to act
guided by the objectives that must satisfy. At each moment the agent decides what
action to take. It not only acts according to the stimuli it perceives, but also
acts as a result of its decisions.
Generate and try to meet objectives, not only directed by events, taking the
initiative.
This implies power and knowing how to recognize opportunities (when you can
act).
We need an agent to react appropriately to changes in the environment
(reactivity).
We need an agent to be able to achieve long-term goals (proactivity).
Communication:
It is the ability of each agent to converse, exchange information, with other
agents. The communication can be direct or indirect. In the case of direct
communication requires a language based on ontologies (set of concepts, predicates,
and relationships between them, which are understandable by a community of agents)
and perform interventions, described as messages composed of two parts: the wrapper
( indicates the data of the sending agent, of the receiving agents, and the
language, the ontology and the protocol used), and the content (composed of two
parts: a performative that indicates the general action of the message, and the
phrase constructed using the ontology used, which indicates what aspects the
performative is about). Indirect communication is based on the use of a space
shared by all agents of the environment (blackboard, billboard), where the
information is deposited and retrieved.
Social Skill:
Sociability is the ability to act and cooperate reciprocally with other
agents (and possibly human beings), through a language of agent communication. The
reason for the above is that in many cases, the agents will hardly reach their
goals without taking into account other agents. In fact, some goals can only be
achieved with the cooperation of other agents. In general, a society of agents is a
group of agents that interact, communicate, converse, think and act together to
achieve a common goal.
Ability to interact with other agents (including humans) using some kind of
agent communication language. The agents collaborate with each other to execute
tasks (MAS).
The real world is a multi-agent environment, it is not possible to obtain
your own objectives without considering those of others.
Some objectives can only be met with the interaction of others.
The social skill in agents is the ability to interact with other agents
(including humans) through cooperation, coordination and negotiation.
This implies having to use some communication language.
Mobility:
It is the agent's ability to move in the environment. Agents can migrate,
move in a network of processing nodes, to execute specific tasks. Thus, mobility
has to do with the ability of agents to move in a given environment. Mobility
implies having appointment and location systems, inherent in distributed systems.
Autonomy:
According to certain authors, autonomy is the main property of agents.
Autonomy is the ability of agents to act without human intervention or other
external systems; this allows him to have his own behavior, and to react to
external stimuli based on his internal states.
Veracity:
The agents do not communicate or return false information on purpose, unless
they are designed with that intention in mind; in which case they would be acting
only to fulfill their objectives. In that sense, in a community of agents it is
assumed that all the agents provide the truthful result of their performance.
Benevolence:
As long as it does not conflict with its own objectives, agents help other
agents through the provision of specific services. In that sense, in a community of
agents all agents are likely to collaborate, to work together.
Rationality:
An agent acts rationally in the sense that he does not execute actions if
they do not lead him to fulfill his objectives. In general, agents have a set of
predefined objectives and take action to achieve them. The decision of which action
to follow, and in what moment to do it, is made according to a principle of
rationality: the most promising or efficient action is preferred to achieve its
goals.
Intelligence:
Because an agent must analyze, order ideas and knowledge about the
environment, to reach a conclusion, and take an action autonomously, this property
is necessary. It combines the ability to accumulate knowledge (learn) and use it
appropriately (reason from it). To implement this property can be used intelligent
computational techniques such as expert systems, artificial neural networks,
diffuse logic, etc.
Adaptive:
An agent is able to change his behavior based on previous experiences and the
perceptions he has made of his environment. In this way, you can go self-
reconfiguring to adapt to your environment.
Asynchronism:
An agent can execute actions without being coupled to a user or other agents,
that is, their actions can be carried out by the occurrence of a particular event.
But the agents are:
Autonomous, they decide for themselves if they act or not.
Intelligent, capable of flexible behavior.
Assets.