Emergent Properties of a Market-based Digital Library with Strategic Agents

The University of Michigan Digital Library (UMDL) is designed as an open system that allows third parties to build and integrate their own profit-seeking agents into the marketplace of information goods and services. The profit-seeking behavior of agents, however, risks inefficient allocation of goods and services, as agents take strategic stances that might backfire. While it would be good if we could impose mechanisms to remove incentives for strategic reasoning, this is not possible in the UMDL. Therefore, our approach has instead been to study whether encouraging the other extreme—making strategic reasoning ubiquitous—provides an answer.Toward this end, we have designed a strategy (called the p-strategy) that uses a stochastic model of the market to find the best offer price. We have then examined the collective behavior of p-strategy agents in the UMDL auction. Our experiments show that strategic thinking is not always beneficial and that the advantage of being strategic decreases with the arrival of equally strategic agents. Furthermore, a simpler strategy can be as effective when enough other agents use the p-strategy. Consequently, we expect the UMDL is likely to evolve to a point where some agents use simpler strategies and some use the p-strategy.     

Congregation Formation in Multiagent Systems

We present congregating both as a metaphor for describing and modeling multiagent systems (MAS) and as a means for reducing coordination costs in large-scale MAS. When agents must search for other agents to interact with, congregations provide a way for agents to bias this search towards groups of agents that have tended to produce successful interactions in the past. This causes each agent's search problem to scale with the size of a congregation rather than the size of the population as a whole. In this paper, we present a formal model of a congregation and then apply Vidal and Durfee's CLRI framework [24] to the congregating problem. We apply congregating to the affinity group domain, and show that if agents are unable to describe congregations to each other, the problem of forming optimal congregations grows exponentially with the number of agents. The introduction of labelers provides a means of coordinating agent decisions, thereby reducing the problem's complexity. We then show how a structured label space can be exploited to simplify the labeler's decision problem and make the congregating problem linear in the number of labels. We then present experimental evidence demonstrating how congregating can be used to reduce agents' search costs, thereby allowing the system to scale up. We conclude with a comparison to other methods for coordinating multiagent behavior, particularly teams and coalitions.     

The distributed constraint satisfaction problem: formalization andalgorithms

We develop a formalism called a distributed constraint satisfaction problem (distributed CSP) and algorithms for solving distributed CSPs. A distributed CSP is a constraint satisfaction problem in which variables and constraints are distributed among multiple agents. Various application problems in distributed artificial intelligence can be formalized as distributed CSPs. We present our newly developed technique called asynchronous backtracking that allows agents to act asynchronously and concurrently without any global control, while guaranteeing the completeness of the algorithm. Furthermore, we describe how the asynchronous backtracking algorithm can be modified into a more efficient algorithm called an asynchronous weak-commitment search, which can revise a bad decision without exhaustive search by changing the priority order of agents dynamically. The experimental results on various example problems show that the asynchronous weak-commitment search algorithm is, by far more, efficient than the asynchronous backtracking algorithm and can solve fairly large-scale problems     

Low programming voltage floating gate analogue memory cells in standard VLSI CMOS technology

Floating gate MOSFET structures were fabricated in a standard 2 mu m double-polysilicon CMOS process which requires programming voltages of only 6.5-9 V. This considerable reduction in programming voltage is achieved by simultaneously exploiting tunnelling through the interpolysilicon oxide and capacitive geometries whose top poly-layers overlap the edges of the lower poly-layers.<>     

Preliminary evaluation of a controlled-brake orthosis for FES-aided gait

A hybrid functional-electrical stimulation (FES) gait system that incorporates a computer-controlled orthosis system has been developed to address the problems of rapid muscle fatigue and poor movement control that are characteristic of FES-aided gait. The orthosis is a long-leg brace that contains controllable friction brakes at both hip and knee joints. The system achieves desirable limb trajectories by utilizing the stimulated muscles as a source of unregulated power and regulating the power at each joint by computer control of the friction brakes. Muscle fatigue is reduced by locking the controllable brakes to provide the isometric joint torques necessary during stance. The hybrid gait system was evaluated and compared to conventional four channel FES-aided gait using four subjects with paraplegia. The results demonstrated significant reduction in muscle fatigue and improvement in trajectory control when using the orthosis combined with FES compared to using FES alone. Results for distance and speed improvements varied across subjects. Considerable work remains in the design of the hardware before the system is feasible for use outside the laboratory.     

Optimization study of the femtosecond laser-induced forward-transfer process with thin aluminum films

The parameters for an effective laser-induced forward-transfer (LIFT) process of aluminum thin films using a femtosecond laser are studied. Deposited feature size as a function of laser fluence, donor film thickness, quality of focus, and the pulse duration are varied, providing a metric of the most desirable conditions for femtosecond LIFT with thin aluminum films.     

Cryptanalysis of RSA with private key d less than N0.292

We show that if the private exponent d used in the RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (1978)) public-key cryptosystem is less than N ^0.292 then the system is insecure. This is the first improvement over an old result of Wiener (1990) showing that when d is less than N^0.25 the RSA system is insecure. We hope our approach can be used to eventually improve the bound to d less than N ^0.5     

Comparison of floating gate neural network memory cells in standardVLSI CMOS technology

Several floating gate MOSFET structures, for potential use as analog memory elements in neural networks, have been fabricated in a standard 2 mum double-polysilicon CMOS process. Their physical and programming characteristics are compared with each other and with similar structures reported in the literature. None of the circuits under consideration require special fabrication techniques. The criteria used to determine the structure most suitable for neural network memory applications include the symmetry of charging and discharging characteristics, programming voltage magnitudes, the area required, and the effectiveness of geometric field enhancement techniques. This work provides a layout for an analog neural network memory based on previously unexplored criteria and results. The authors have found that the best designs (a) use the poly1 to poly2 oxide for injection; (b) need not utilize ;field enhancement' techniques; (c) use poly1 to diffusion oxide for a coupling capacitor; and (d) size capacitor ratios to provide a wide range of possible programming voltages.     

Methods for estimating isometric recruitment curves of electricallystimulated muscle

Four methods for estimating the recruitment curve of isometric, electrically stimulated muscle are described. Three of the methods were tested experimentally in isolated tibialis anterior and medial gastrocnemius muscles of cats. The three methods are steady-state step response, peak impulse response, and deconvolved ramp response. The fourth method, described but not tested, is a stochastic iteration technique. The results demonstrate that estimations of recruitment curves depend on the method used and that all methods are sensitive to short-term and long-term time-variations in muscle properties. While the step response technique is the traditional method for estimating recruitment curves, the ramp deconvolution method appears to offer acceptable accuracy with much shorter testing times.