INTRODUCTION TO

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
FOR IT & NON-IT PROFESSIONALS
MULTI-AGENT ENVIRONMENT

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MULTI-AGENT ENVIRONMENT

• Multi-agent environment, is one in which every agent needs to

consider the actions of other agents and how they affect its own
welfare.

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MULTI-AGENT ENVIRONMENT

GAMES VS. SEARCH

• Search- no adversary –no opponent
• Solution is (heuristic) method for finding goal –
• Heuristics and Constraint satisfaction problems (CSP) techniques can
find optimal solution

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MULTI-AGENT ENVIRONMENT

• Evaluation function: estimate of cost from start to goal through given

node.
• Examples: path planning, scheduling activities
• Games – adversary
• Solution is a strategy (strategy specifies move for every possible
opponent reply).
• Time limit forces an approximate solution to be taken.
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MULTI-AGENT ENVIRONMENT

• Two extremes in the study of multiagent systems

• Cooperative
same utility function
• Competitive
one agent can only win when another loses
• zero-sum games
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MULTI-AGENT ENVIRONMENT

There are two extremes in the study of multi-agent systems:

• fully cooperative, where the agents share the same utility function,
and
• fully competitive, when one agent can only win when another loses.

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MULTI-AGENT ENVIRONMENT

• For example, if one player wins a game of chess, the other player
necessarily loses.
• AI Concentrates on computational aspects.