Special Issue on Multi-Agent Systems Research in the United Kingdom

What is it about?

Multi-agent systems have been a core research topic in artificial intelligence for several decades. A multi-agent system consists of multiple decision-making agents – which may be software-based AI systems, physically-embodied robots, or humans – which must interact in a shared environment in pursuit of their goals. Multi-agent systems research spans a range of technical problems, such as how to design planning and learning algorithms which enable agents to achieve their goals; how to design multi-agent systems to incentivise certain behaviours in agents; how information is communicated and propagated among agents; and how norms, conventions, and roles may emerge in multi-agent systems. A vast array of applications have been addressed using multi-agent methodologies, including autonomous driving, multi-robot factories, automated trading, commercial games, automated tutoring, and robotic rescue teams.

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Why is it important?

The purpose of this special issue is to showcase current multi-agent systems research led by university and industry groups based in the United Kingdom. Research groups and institutes in the UK which have significant activity in multi-agent systems research were invited to submit an article describing: (1) the technical problems in multi-agent systems tackled by the group (their core research agenda), including applications and industry collaboration; (2) the main approaches developed by the group and any key results achieved; and (3) important open challenges in multi-agent systems research from the perspective of the group.