An integrated trust and reputation model for open multi-agent systems

Trust and reputation are central to effective interactions in open multi-agent systems (MAS) in which agents, that are owned by a variety of stakeholders, continuously enter and leave the system. This openness means existing trust and reputation models cannot readily be used since their performance suffers when there are various (unforseen) changes in the environment. To this end, this paper presents FIRE, a trust and reputation model that integrates a number of information sources to produce a comprehensive assessment of an agent’s likely performance in open systems. Specifically, FIRE incorporates interaction trust, role-based trust, witness reputation, and certified reputation to provide trust metrics in most circumstances. FIRE is empirically evaluated and is shown to help agents gain better utility (by effectively selecting appropriate interaction partners) than our benchmarks in a variety of agent populations. It is also shown that FIRE is able to effectively respond to changes that occur in an agent’s environment.     

An authorization-based trust model for multiagent systems

In this paper an authorization-based trust model (ABTM) is described which is designed for managing access to services in a semi-open distributed environment. This is called a multiagent-based smart office environment. In this model, "trust" is defined as a set of authorization attributes that are granted by the owner of a service to the user of the service. Central to this model is a trust manager that redelegates authorizations from the service owner to the requesting user, based on access control policies that are specified by role labels which are assigned to a set of agents. The ABTM scheme is different from a centralized scheme, in which authorizations are granted directly by an authority. It is also different from a fully distributed system,where authorizations are granted based solely on the discretion of the owner of the services. The design philosophy is the separation of trust management and trust application to allow efficient management of access control in large-scale and dynamic environment, such as those that exist in multiagent systems.     

基于事件驱动的多智能体强化学习研究

本文针对多智能体强化学习中存在的通信和计算资源消耗大等问题,提出了一种基于事件驱动的多智能体强化学习算法,侧重于事件驱动在多智能体学习策略层方面的研究。在智能体与环境的交互过程中,算法基于事件驱动的思想,根据智能体观测信息的变化率设计触发函数,使学习过程中的通信和学习时机无需实时或按周期地进行,故在相同时间内可以降低数据传输和计算次数。另外,分析了该算法的计算资源消耗,以及对算法收敛性进行了论证。最后,仿真实验说明了该算法可以在学习过程中减少一定的通信次数和策略遍历次数,进而缓解了通信和计算资源消耗。     

An efficient recommender system algorithm using trust data

The Journal of Supercomputing - Smart services are a concept that provides services to the citizens in an efficient manner. The online shopping and recommender system can play an important role for...     

一种基于帧间差探测函数模型的运动估计算法

针对基于匹配搜索的运动估计快速算法中,匹配环节在运动估计算法中耗费大量的处理时间,使得块匹配法运动估计实时性差的问题,提出了一种基于帧间差探测函数模型的运动估计新算法,该算法将"虚拟边缘"引入目标运动事件中,建立了帧间差探测函数模型,并确定了实际的帧间差探测函数模型中参数的选择策略.实验结果及分析表明,该算法不仅能够很好地完成较复杂背景下运动小目标的跟踪,而且能够获得相对于块匹配法更好的实时性能.     

Model checking temporal knowledge and commitments in multi-agent systems using reduction

Though modeling and verifying Multi-Agent Systems (MASs) have long been under study, there are still challenges when many different aspects need to be considered simultaneously. In fact, various frameworks have been carried out for modeling and verifying MASs with respect to knowledge and social commitments independently. However, considering them under the same framework still needs further investigation, particularly from the verification perspective. In this article, we present a new technique for model checking the logic of knowledge and commitments (CTLKC⁺). The proposed technique is fully-automatic and reduction-based in which we transform the problem of model checking CTLKC⁺ into the problem of model checking an existing logic of action called ARCTL. Concretely, we construct a set of transformation rules to formally reduce the CTLKC⁺ model into an ARCTL model and CTLKC⁺ formulae into ARCTL formulae to get benefit from the extended version of NuSMV symbolic model checker of ARCTL. Compared to a recent approach that reduces the problem of model checking CTLKC⁺ to another logic of action called GCTL¹, our technique has better scalability and efficiency. We also analyze the complexity of the proposed model checking technique. The results of this analysis reveal that the complexity of our reduction-based procedure is PSPACE-complete for local concurrent programs with respect to the size of these programs and the length of the formula being checked. From the time perspective, we prove that the complexity of the proposed approach is P-complete with regard to the size of the model and length of the formula, which makes it efficient. Finally, we implement our model checking approach on top of extended NuSMV and report verification results for the verification of the NetBill protocol, taken from business domain, against some desirable properties. The obtained results show the effectiveness of our model checking approach when the system scales up.     

An iterative learning approach to formation control of multi-agent systems

In this paper, an efficient framework is proposed to the formation control problem of multiple agents with unknown nonlinear dynamics, by means of the iterative learning approach. In particular, a distributed D-type iterative learning scheme is developed for the multi-agent system with switching topology, whose switching time and sequence are allowed to be varied at different iterations according to the actual trajectories of agents, and a sufficient condition is derived to ensure that the desired formation can be always preserved from the initial starting location to the final one after some iterations. Simulation results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Abstraction for model checking multi-agent systems

Model checking multi-agent systems (MAS) always suffers from the state explosion problem. In this paper we focus on an abstraction technique which is one of the major methods for overcoming this problem. For a multi-agent system, we present a novel abstraction procedure which reduces the state space by collapsing the global states in the system. The abstraction is automatically computed according to the property to be verified. The resulting abstract system simulates the concrete system, while the universal temporal epistemic properties are preserved. Our abstraction is an overapproximation. If some universal temporal epistemic property is not satisfied, then we need to identify spurious counterexamples. We further show how to reduce complex counterexamples to simple structures, i.e., paths and loops, such that the counterexamples can be checked and the abstraction can be refined efficiently. Finally, we illustrate the abstraction technique with a card game.     

An enhanced e-commerce trust model for community based centralized systems

Conventional trust models cannot simultaneously fulfill three major requirements of community based centralized e-commerce systems having a large number of members and economic risk. First, a buyer dealing with a new seller should be able to consult other buyers’ experiences with that seller to make a better decision. Also, a seller with a good reputation should not abuse it by conducting fraudulent transactions. Finally, a buyer with good experience with a seller, even one with a bad reputation, should be able to continue to deal with that seller. This paper introduces a trust-scoring model (Enhanced E-Commerce Trust Model or E2CTM) to address the above requirements. In E2CTM, a trustor uses personal experience with a trustee and input from other trustors about that trustee. To explore the capability of E2CTM, an online electronic auction shopping system was developed to compare its performance with a conventional trust model used by most electronic shopping systems that uses overall gain and loss of all buyers in simulated auctions as evaluation criteria. The results show the advantage of E2CTM, specifically, in terms of overall performance. The improvement is more significant when there is low percentage of fraudulent transactions in the system.     

Distributed learning and cooperative control for multi-agent systems

This paper presents an algorithm and analysis of distributed learning and cooperative control for a multi-agent system so that a global goal of the overall system can be achieved by locally acting agents. We consider a resource-constrained multi-agent system, in which each agent has limited capabilities in terms of sensing, computation, and communication. The proposed algorithm is executed by each agent independently to estimate an unknown field of interest from noisy measurements and to coordinate multiple agents in a distributed manner to discover peaks of the unknown field. Each mobile agent maintains its own local estimate of the field and updates the estimate using collective measurements from itself and nearby agents. Each agent then moves towards peaks of the field using the gradient of its estimated field while avoiding collision and maintaining communication connectivity. The proposed algorithm is based on a recursive spatial estimation of an unknown field. We show that the closed-loop dynamics of the proposed multi-agent system can be transformed into a form of a stochastic approximation algorithm and prove its convergence using Ljung’s ordinary differential equation (ODE) approach. We also present extensive simulation results supporting our theoretical results.     

非参数不确定多智能体系统一致性误差跟踪学习控制

针对一类在有限时间区间上执行重复任务的主-从型非参数不确定多智能体系统,提出一致性误差跟踪学习控制方法,用于解决在任意初始误差情形下的一致性问题.根据Lyapunov综合方法设计控制器,经过足够多次迭代后,藉由从智能体的一致性误差在整个作业区间上完全跟踪对应的期望一致性误差轨迹,实现各从智能体在预设的部分作业区间上对主智能体的零误差轨迹跟踪.采用鲁棒策略与学习策略相结合的手段处理非参数不确定性,利用双曲正切函数设计反馈项补偿随迭代次数变化但有界的不确定性.仿真结果表明了该控制方案的有效性.     

Fuzzy trust evaluation and credibility development in multi-agent systems

E-commerce markets can increase their efficiency through the usage of intelligent agents which negotiate and execute contracts on behalf of their owners. The measurement and computation of trust to secure interactions between autonomous agents is crucial for the success of automated e-commerce markets. Building a knowledge sharing network among peer agents helps to overcome trust-related boundaries in an environment where least human intervention is desired. Nevertheless, a risk management model which allows individual customisation to meet the different security needs of agent–owners is vital.The calculation and measurement of trust in unsupervised virtual communities like multi-agent environments involves complex aspects such as credibility rating for opinions delivered by peer agents, or the assessment of past experiences with the peer node one wishes to interact with. The deployment of suitable algorithms and models imitating human reasoning can help to solve these problems.This paper proposes not only a customisable trust evaluation model based on fuzzy logic but also demonstrates the integration of post-interaction processes like business interaction reviews and credibility adjustment. Fuzzy logic provides a natural framework to deal with uncertainty and the tolerance of imprecise data inputs to fuzzy-based systems makes fuzzy reasoning especially attractive for the subjective tasks of trust evaluation, business-interaction review and credibility adjustment.     

精确估计下的多智能体系统漏斗复合控制

针对一类具有时变扰动的非线性多智能体系统, 研究其在有向拓扑下的一致性跟踪问题, 提出一种基于精 确估计的复合自适应预设有限时间(PFT)漏斗控制方法. 首先, 构建一种新的PFT漏斗控制, 使跟踪误差约束在PFT 漏斗边界内. 其次, 采用神经网络(NN)逼近系统的未知非线性, 并利用NN逼近信息设计扰动观测器, 建立基于NN和 扰动观测器的复合估计模型, 将得到的预测误差引入NN权值的复合更新律中, 实现对未知非线性和时变扰动的精 确估计. 然后, 利用动态面技术和误差补偿机制, 在解决传统反步法“计算爆炸”问题的同时, 消除滤波器误差对系 统的影响. 最后, 通过Lyapunov稳定性理论证明闭环系统所有信号均为有界的, 并通过仿真实验验证控制方法的有 效性.     

基于中间观测器的异构多智能体系统分布式故障估计

针对由无人机和无人车组成的异构多智能体系统,提出一种新型的基于中间观测器的分布式故障估计方法,可以实现对节点及其邻居执行器故障和系统状态的同时估计.首先,考虑到无人机在XOY平面与在OZ轴方向的运动相对独立,异构多智能体系统可以划分为由无人机和无人车组成的位置子系统的XOY平面以及无人机位置子系统的OZ轴;然后,设计基于中间变量的分布式故障估计观测器,不仅能同时估计出选定的智能体自身与其邻居的执行器故障和状态,也能克服观测器匹配条件的限制,并基于$H_\infty$性能指标求解观测器增益;最后,通过仿真实验验证所提出方法的可行性与有效性.     

Computational trust and reputation models for open multi-agent systems: a review

In open environments, agents depend on reputation and trust mechanisms to evaluate the behavior of potential partners. The scientific research in this field has considerably increased, and in fact, reputation and trust mechanisms have been already considered a key elements in the design of multi-agent systems. In this paper we provide a survey that, far from being exhaustive, intends to show the most representative models that currently exist in the literature. For this enterprise we consider several dimensions of analysis that appeared in three existing surveys, and provide new dimensions that can be complementary to the existing ones and that have not been treated directly. Moreover, besides showing the original classification that each one of the surveys provide, we also classify models that where not taken into account by the original surveys. The paper illustrates the proliferation in the past few years of models that follow a more cognitive approach, in which trust and reputation representation as mental attitudes is as important as the final values of trust and reputation. Furthermore, we provide an objective definition of trust, based on Castelfranchi’s idea that trust implies a decision to rely on someone.     

A complete coalition logic of temporal knowledge for multi-agent systems

Coalition logic (CL) is one of the most influential logical formalisms for strategic abilities of multi-agent systems. CL can specify what a group of agents can achieve through choices of their actions, denoted by [C]? to state that a group of agents C can have a strategy to bring about ? by collective actions, no matter what the other agents do. However, CL lacks the temporal dimension and thus can not capture the dynamic aspects of a system. Therefore, CL can not formalize the evolvement of rational mental attitudes of the agents such as knowledge, which has been shown to be very useful in specifications and verifications of distributed systems, and has received substantial amount of studies. In this paper, we introduce coalition logic of temporal knowledge (CLTK), by incorporating a temporal logic of knowledge (Halpern and Vardi’s logic of CKL _n ) into CL to equip CL with the power to formalize how agents’ knowledge (individual or group knowledge) evolves over the time by coalitional forces and the temporal properties of strategic abilities as well. Furthermore, we provide an axiomatic system for CLTK and prove that it is sound and complete, along with the complexity of the satisfiability problem which is shown to be EXPTIME-complete.     

MAP-ACO: An efficient protocol for multi-agent pathfinding in real-time WSN and decentralized IoT systems

Efficient energy consumption is one of the main problems in wireless sensor networks routing protocols. Since the sensor nodes have limited battery level and memory space, it is important to manage these resources efficiently. Although there are studies in this subject in recent years, it is lacking in concurrent and real-time environments with multi-agents. The importance of this issue is increasing more especially for decentralized IoT systems. This paper presents a novel routing protocol based on ant colony optimization for multi-agents that manages network resources adequately in real-time conditions. The proposed method is used, both to find the next destination of ants, and to manage pheromone update and evaporation rate operators. This method takes into account some key parameters such as remaining energy, buffer size, traffic rate, and distance when selecting the next destination under different conditions. The proposed method finds the optimal paths with low energy consumption thereby prolonging the network lifetime in concurrent and parallel conditions. The simulation results of the proposed method have given good results, in terms of network lifetime and energy consumption, when compared with other ant colony optimization (ACO)-based routing protocols.     

非仿射非线性多智能体系统迭代学习一致跟踪

为了解决非仿射非线性多智能体系统在给定时间区间上一致性完全跟踪问题,基于迭代学习控制方法设计一种分布式一致性跟踪控制算法.首先,由引入的虚拟领导者与所有跟随者组成多智能体系统的通信拓扑,其中虚拟领导者的作用是提供期望轨迹.然后,在只有部分跟随者能够获得领导者信息的条件下,利用每个跟随者及其邻居的跟踪误差构造每个跟随者的迭代学习一致性跟踪控制器.同时采用中值定理将非仿射非线性多智能体系统转化仿射形式,并基于压缩映射方法证明所提算法的收敛性,给出算法的收敛条件.理论分析表明,在智能体的非线性函数未知情况下,利用所提算法可以使非仿射非线性多智能体系统在给定时间区间上随迭代次数增加逐次实现一致性完全跟踪.最后,通过仿真算例进一步验证所提算法的有效性.     

A hybrid trust model using reinforcement learning and fuzzy logic

Multiagent systems (MASs) are increasingly popular for modeling distributed environments that are highly complex and dynamic, such as e‐commerce, smart buildings, and smart grids. Typically, agents assumed to be goal driven with limited abilities, which restrains them to working with other agents for accomplishing complex tasks. Trust is considered significant in MASs to make interactions effectively, especially when agents cannot assure that potential partners share the same core beliefs about the system or make accurate statements regarding their competencies and abilities. Due to the imprecise and dynamic nature of trust in MASs, we propose a hybrid trust model that uses fuzzy logic and Q‐learning for trust modeling. as an improvement over Q‐learning‐based trust evaluation. Q‐learning is used to estimate trust on the long term, fuzzy inferences are used to aggregate different trust factors, and suspension is used as a short‐term response to dynamic changes. The performance of the proposed model is evaluated using simulation. Simulation results indicate that the proposed model can help agents select trustworthy partners to interact with. It has a better performance compared to some of the popular trust models in the presence of misbehaving interaction partners.     

State estimation using model order reduction for unstable systems

The problem of state estimation occurs in many applications of fluid flow. For example, to produce a reliable weather forecast it is essential to find the best possible estimate of the true state of the atmosphere. To find this best estimate a nonlinear least squares problem has to be solved subject to dynamical system constraints. Usually this is solved iteratively by an approximate Gauss–Newton method where the underlying discrete linear system is in general unstable. In this paper we propose a new method for deriving low order approximations to the problem based on a recently developed model reduction method for unstable systems. To illustrate the theoretical results, numerical experiments are performed using a two-dimensional Eady model – a simple model of baroclinic instability, which is the dominant mechanism for the growth of storms at mid-latitudes. It is a suitable test model to show the benefit that may be obtained by using model reduction techniques to approximate unstable systems within the state estimation problem.