Controlling systems with multiple robots is quickly becoming the next large hurdle that must be overcome for groups of robots to successfully function as a team. An agent oriented approach for this problem is presented in this thesis. By using an agent oriented method, the robots can act independently yet still work together. To be able to establish communities of robots, a basic agent oriented control system for each robot must first be implemented. This thesis introduces a novel method to create Physical Robot Agents, promoting a separation of cognitive and reactive behaviours into a two layer system. These layers are further abstracted into key subsections that are required for the Physical Robot Agents to function. To test this architecture, experiments are performed with physical robots to determine the feasibility of this approach. <br /><br /> A real-time implementation of a Physical Robot Agent would greatly expand its field of use. The speed of internal communication is analyzed to validate the application of this architecture to real-time tasks. <br /><br /> It is concluded that the Physical Robot Agents are well suited for multiple robot systems and that real-time applications are feasible.

<p>In the media today, remuneration programs to CEO’s are frequently discussed. Media are usually focusing on the large amounts paid out rather than why the companies use the programs. The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether the conflict of interest presented by the Principal Agent Theory is affected by a CEO remuneration program.</p><p>To reach the purpose, an inductive method has been used. Questionnaires have been send out by e-mail and phone interviews have been carried out with two sample groups, one with remuneration programs, and one that do not use remuneration programs.</p><p>The main theoretical framework used is Principal Agent Theory. With the help of other supporting and complementing theories the authors have been able to analyze the empirical findings gathered, and come to a conclusion. The authors were able to come to the conclusion that an effective remuneration program can to some extent steer a CEO’s behavior in the short term, and thereby affect the conflict of interest going on between principals and agents according to Principal Agent Theory. At the same time the authors have come to the conclusion that it is more difficult to make any clear connections between remuneration programs and being able to steer CEO’s behavior in the long run. However the long run reason for a remuneration program is to create a loyalty between the owners and managers. It has also been seen that companies without a remuneration plan tend to apply a Stewardship relationship rather than a principal agent relationship, and are thereby managing to decrease the conflict of interest between the two parties.</p> / <p>Bonusprogram är ofta diskuterade i media idag. Fokus ligger oftare på storleken på beloppen som betalas ut snarare än varför företagen väljer att använda sig av programmen. Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka huruvida intressekonflikten presenterad i Principal Agent Teori påverkas av ett bonusprogram till VD.</p><p>För att uppnå syftet har en induktiv metod används. Frågeformulär har skickats ut via e-post och telefonintervjuer har genomförts med två olika urvalsgrupper, en där företagen använder sig av bonusprogram till sin VD och en där företagen inte använder sig av bonusprogram till sin VD.</p><p>Den huvudsakliga teorin som använts är Principal Agent Teori. Med hjälp av andra stödjande samt kompletterande teorier har författarna kunnat analysera det empiriska materialet som samlats in och på så sätt lyckats komma fram till en slutsats.</p><p>Författarna kom fram till slutsatsen att ett effektivt bonusprogram kan till viss del styra en VD:s beteende på kortsikt, och på så sätt påverka den intressekonflikt som pågår mellan principal och agent enligt Principal Agent Teorin. Samtidigt har författarna kommit fram till slutsatsen att det är svårare att se något klart samband mellan bonusprogram och möjligheten att styra en VD:s beteende på långsikt. En annan anledning för att använda ett bonusprogram är att skapa en lojalitet mellan ägare och chefer på långsikt. Det har även framkommit att företag som inte använder sig av ett bonussystem tenderar att ha en Stewardship relation snarare än en principal agent relation mellan ägaren och VD. På så sätt lyckas dessa företag minska intressekonflikten mellan de två parterna.</p>

<p>Comics have been used as a programming tool for agents, giving them instructions on how to act. In this thesis I do this in reverse, I use comics to describe the actions of agents already interacting with each other to create a storytelling engine that dynamically generate stories, based on the interaction of said agents.</p><p>The model for the agent behaviours is based on the improvisational puppets model of Barbara Hayes-Roth. This model is chosen due to the nature of comics themselves. Comics like those found on newspapers and children magazines are funny because their characters behaviour depends heavily on emotions, which is why this model is well suited for this application.</p><p>This project implements an emotion-based model for agent behaviour in a way that tells a story in the form of comic strips. For this, the model is adapted to a discrete time form since the actions no longer occur in real time (like in traditional simulation games) but rather in a sequence of frames or panels. The model is inspired by the analysis of time and space mechanics in comics by Scott McCloud. The emotional model is also adapted to reflect the rather extreme emotions and responses that characterize cartoon characters.</p>

This paper evaluates some arguments made against the conceptions of right action within virtue ethics. I argue that the different accounts of right action can meet the objections raised against them. Michael Slote‘s agent-based and Rosalind Hursthouses agent-focused account of right action give different judgments of right action but there seems to be a lack of real disagreement between the two accounts. I also argue that the concept of right action often has two important parts, relating to action guidance and moral appraisal, respectively, and that virtue ethics can deal with both without a concept of right action.

Comics have been used as a programming tool for agents, giving them instructions on how to act. In this thesis I do this in reverse, I use comics to describe the actions of agents already interacting with each other to create a storytelling engine that dynamically generate stories, based on the interaction of said agents. The model for the agent behaviours is based on the improvisational puppets model of Barbara Hayes-Roth. This model is chosen due to the nature of comics themselves. Comics like those found on newspapers and children magazines are funny because their characters behaviour depends heavily on emotions, which is why this model is well suited for this application. This project implements an emotion-based model for agent behaviour in a way that tells a story in the form of comic strips. For this, the model is adapted to a discrete time form since the actions no longer occur in real time (like in traditional simulation games) but rather in a sequence of frames or panels. The model is inspired by the analysis of time and space mechanics in comics by Scott McCloud. The emotional model is also adapted to reflect the rather extreme emotions and responses that characterize cartoon characters.

Le formalisme CSP (Problème de Satisfaction de Contraintes) permet de représenter de nombreux problèmes de manière simple et efficace. Cependant, une partie de ces problèmes ne peut être résolue de manière classique et centralisée. Les causes peuvent être diverses : temps de rapatriement des données prohibitif, sécurité des données non garantie, etc. Les CSP Distribués(DisCSP), domaine intersectant celui des SMA et des CSP, permettent de modéliser et de résoudre ces problèmes naturellement distribués. Les raisonnements intra-agent et inter-agents sont alors basés sur un ensemble de relations entre différentes variables. Les agents interagissent afin de construire une solution globale à partir des solutions locales. Nous proposons, dans ce travail, un algorithme de résolution de DisCSP nommé Distributed Backtracking with Sessions (DBS) permettant de résoudre des DisCSP où chaque agent dispose d'un problème local complexe. DBS a la particularité de ne pas utiliser de nogoods comme la majorité des algorithmes de résolution de DisCSP mais d'utiliser à la place des sessions. Ces sessions sont des nombres permettant d'attribuer un contexte à chaque agent ainsi qu'à chaque message échangé durant la résolution du problème. Il s'agit d'un algorithme complet permettant l'utilisation de filtres sur les messages échangés sans remettre en cause la preuvede complétude. Notre proposition est évaluée, dans les cas mono-variable et multi-variables par agents, sur différents benchmarks classiques (les problèmes de coloration de graphes distribués et les DisCSP aléatoires) ainsi que sur un problème d'exploration en environnement inconnu.

This dissertation investigates selected empirical and theoretical aspects of land-use and land-cover change (LUCC) in exurban areas. Two challenges – observation and monitoring of LUCC, and spatially explicit modeling, are addressed using three main approaches – measuring, reviewing and agent-based modeling (ABM). All of these approaches focus on LUCC at the individual household level, investigating how micro-scale elements interact to influence macro-scale functional patterns—bottom-up analysis. First, the temporal change of the quantity and pattern of land-cover types within exurban residential parcels in three townships in the southeastern Michigan is examined using landscape metrics and local indicators of spatial association at the parcel and parcel-neighborhood level respectively. The results demonstrate that the number and area of exurban residential parcels increased steadily from 1960 to 2000, and different land-cover types have distinctive temporal changes over time. The results also indicate that there is a convergence process at the neighborhood level through which the quantity and pattern of land cover in parcels conform with the neighborhood appearance. Second, 51 urban residential choice models based on ABM are reviewed. The results divide these models into three categories (i.e. models based on classical theories, models focusing on different stages of urbanization process; and integrated ABM and microsimulation models). This review also compares the differences among these models in their representations of three essential features brought by the technique of ABM: agent heterogeneity, the land market and output measurement. Challenges in incorporating these features, such as the trade-off between the simplicity and abstraction of model and the complexity of urban residential system, interactions of multiple features and demands for data at individual level, are also discussed. Third, the effects of agent heterogeneity on spatial and socioeconomic outcomes under different levels of land-market representations are explored through three experiments using a stylized agent-based land-market model. The results reveal that budget heterogeneity has prominent effects on socioeconomic outcomes, while preference heterogeneity is highly pertinent to spatial outcomes. The relationship between agent heterogeneity and macro-measures becomes more complex as more land-market mechanisms are represented. The results also imply that land-market representation (e.g., competitive bidding) is indispensable to reproduce the results of classical urban land market models (e.g., monocentric city model) in a spatial ABM when agents are heterogeneous.

Truck transportation is considered as a favourable mode by shippers to carry freight at most ranges of distance as it has more flexibility in fleet size, capacity, scheduling, routing, and access. Although truck is considered as the popular mode for freight transportation, road-rail intermodal freight transportation becomes an attractive alternative to road only mode since the latter has no longer assured a reliable service due to traffic congestion problem. It also raises public concern in environmental and road safety impacts. Intermodal freight transportation is defined as a system that carries freight from origin to destination using two or more transportation modes where transfers between modes occur at an intermodal freight terminal. Success of the terminal depends on four major factors, namely: location, efficiency, financial sustainability, and rail level of service. Among these, the location is one of the most crucial success factors and needs to be considered carefully as it has direct and indirect impacts on a number of stakeholders including terminal users, terminal operators, transport network infrastructure providers, and community. Limitations of previous terminal location evaluation models in representing individual preference and behaviour as well as accommodating negotiation and communication between the players bring in an opportunity to develop a new model which is more flexible and capable of providing a solution that is not necessary to be optimal, but acceptable for every player without requiring explicit trade-offs. This thesis is aimed at demonstrating the feasibility of applying an agent-based approach to the evaluation of intermodal freight terminal location and investigating terminal effectiveness against stakeholder equity and some important aspects arising from the different stakeholders’ viewpoints. Agent technologies were introduced to model the stakeholders as individual agents. The agent concept was adopted to develop a decentralised location evaluation system that is able to balance the terminal effectiveness with the stakeholder equity. The proposed agent-based location evaluation model was modelled as a hierarchical control system that comprises three decision levels: local level, stakeholder level and policy level. Policy level is the highest decision level, which is represented by a policy maker. Apart from the policy level, the rest can be viewed as operational decision levels. Local level is the lowest control level. At this level, each stakeholder was classified into stakeholder groups based on their characteristics and interest. The terminal scenarios were then evaluated based on benefit maximisation criteria. Stakeholder control is the higher control level than the local level. It represents the control level where negotiations and decisions between groups of people (stakeholders) with different point of views are made. At this level, negotiation process was used to determine terminal location based on preference and equity of stakeholders. The determined terminal site was then used in the evaluation against constraints to ensure that all agents are satisfied. The terminal location decision for South East Queensland (SEQ) was applied as a case study of this thesis. The SEQ strategic freight transport model was developed, calibrated, and validated to assist in providing inputs for the evaluation of terminal location. The results indicated that for the developed agent-based location evaluation model, Yatala was selected as the most appropriate terminal location that results in the highest effectiveness and equity (as measured by level of satisfaction and Gini coefficient, respectively). Other location evaluation models were also used in comparison with the developed agent-based location evaluation model. Those include P-Median, P-Centre, and maximum covering models. It was found that the agent-based location evaluation model outperformed the other location evaluation models. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was conducted in order to evaluate the consistency of model outputs against the uncertainties in the input parameters. In most cases, the terminal location decisions obtained from the developed agent-based location evaluation model was not sensitive to the changes in those parameters. However, the results suggested that when a unit cost of truck travel delay increased, the impact on the final terminal location decisions was observed. This thesis demonstrated the feasibility of applying a decentralised approach to terminal location decision problem using a multi-agent concept and evaluating it against other well-known location problems. A new framework and methodology for the planning of intermodal terminal location evaluation was also formulated. Finally, the problems of terminal location evaluation and optimisation of intermodal freight terminal operation were integrated into a single evaluation model.

The thesis solves a challenging problem in military logistics for tasks such as transportation scheduling and combinatorial auctions. A conceptual model has been developed that captures the organisational business processes involved and an effective implementation suitable for computer software agents. The protocol facilitates planning and task allocation among organisations in decentralised, dynamic and open environments.

Universiẗat, Diss.--Münster, 2005. / Literaturverz. S. 287 - 334.