1. 1 Background In this work, we develop a framework for the design of multi-agent systems inspired by (human) organizational principles. Organizations are complex entities formed to ov- come various limitations of individual agencies, such as cognitive, physical, temporal and institutional limitations. There is a parallel between the complexity of organizations and multi-agent systems. Therefore, we explore the use of concepts, methods and techniques from human organizational design as architectural principles for multi-agent systems. Three research lines are presented: organizational modeling and coordination, interop- ability and agent models. Organizational modeling and coordination are concerned with how resources (i. e. agents) can be identi?ed and related to each other. In order to have agents cooperate, several issues of interoperability have to be addressed. Agent models deal with the design of individual intelligent software agents, taking into account typical features of agent intelligence. Every (human) activity raises two challenges: division of labor and coordi- tion [Mintzberg, 1993]. Division of labor is the decomposition of work (or goals) into various distinct tasks. Coordination refers to managing relations between these tasks to carry out the work. The patterns of division of labor, responsibilities (people who do the work), clustering of responsibilities into units and coordination between units can be de?ned by organizational structures [Galbraith, 1973]. The design of an organization should cover how one or more actors are engaged in one or more tasks, where knowledge, capabilities and resources are distributed.

Agent Technology, or Agent-Based Approaches, is a new paradigm for developing software applications. It has been hailed as 'the next significant breakthrough in software development', and 'the new revolution in software' after object technology or object-oriented programming. In this context, an agent is a computer system which is capable of acting autonomously in its environment in order to meet its design objectives. So in the area of concurrent design and manufacturing, a manufacturing resource, namely a machine or an operator, may cooperate and negotiate with other agents for task assignment; and an existing engineering software can be integrated with a distributed integrated engineering design and manufacturing system. Hence in agent-based systems, there is no centralized system control structure, and no pre-defined agenda for the system execution, as exist in traditional systems. This book systematically describes the principles, key issues, and applications of agent technology in relation to concurrent engineering design and manufacturing. It introduces the methodology, standards, frameworks, tools, and languages of agent-based approaches and presents a general procedure for building agent-based concurrent engineering design and manufacturing systems. Both professional and university researchers and postgraduates should find this an invaluable presentation of the corresponding theories and methods, with some practical examples for developing multi-agent systems in the domain.

Conceptual Modelling of Multi-Agent Systems proposes the methodology and engineering environment CoMoMAS for the development of multi-agent systems. CoMoMAS is among the most elaborated and most often cited multi-agent development approaches available in the field. Its originality is to address the issue of the development of multi-agent systems (MAS) from a knowledge engineering perspective, which means that agents are seen as interacting entities having different kinds of knowledge, which is to be identified during development. Knowledge has played an important role for MAS development in the past, but CoMoMAS makes a step further in proposing a complete set of conceptual models and a solid methodology to guide the overall development process of a MAS-from design to validation. Conceptual Modelling of Multi-Agent Systems is an excellent reference for both researchers and practitioners in the broad area of distributed systems development. This book is of particular value from the point of view of computer science, including knowledge engineering, artificial intelligence, agent and multi-agent technology, and software engineering.

"This book provide a comprehensive view of current developments in agent organizations as a paradigm for both the modeling of human organizations, and for designing effective artificial organizations"--Provided by publisher.

Autonomous agents and multi-agent systems are computational systems in which several (semi-)autonomous agents interact with each other or work together to perform some set of tasks or satisfy some set of goals. These systems may involve computational agents that are homogeneous or heterogeneous, they may involve activities on the part of agents having common or distinct goals, and they may involve participation on the part of humans and intelligent agents. This volume contains selected papers from PRIMA 2002, the 5th Paci?c Rim International Workshop on Multi-Agents, held in Tokyo, Japan, on August 18–19, 2002 in conjunction with the 7th Paci?c Rim International Conference on Arti?cial Intelligence (PRICAI-02). PRIMA is a series of workshops on - tonomous agents and multi-agent systems, integrating activities in the Asian and Paci?c Rim countries. PRIMA 2002 built on the great success of its pre- cessors, PRIMA’98 in Singapore, PRIMA’99 in Kyoto, Japan, PRIMA 2000 in Melbourne, Australia, and PRIMA 2001 in Taipei, Taiwan. We received 35 submissions to this workshop from 10 countries. Each paper was reviewed by three internationally renowned program committee members. After careful reviews, 15 papers were selected for this volume. We would like to thank all the authors who submitted papers to the workshop. We would also like to thank all the program committee members for their splendid work in reviewing the papers. Finally, we thank the editorial sta? of Springer-Verlag for publishing this volume in the Lecture Notes in Arti?cial Intelligence.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the International Workshop on Coordination, Organizations, Institutions, and Norms for Governance of Multi-Agent Systems, COINE 2022, which was held in Auckland, New Zealand, on May 9, 2022. The 14 papers included in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from 15 submissions. They deal with autonomous agents and multi-agent systems, focusing on the scientific and technological aspects of social coordination, organizational theory, artificial (electronic) institutions, and normative and ethical MAS.

Adaptive Agents and Multi-Agent Systems is an emerging and exciting interdisciplinary area of research and development involving artificial intelligence, computer science, software engineering, and developmental biology, as well as cognitive and social science. This book surveys the state of the art in this emerging field by drawing together thoroughly selected reviewed papers from two related workshops; as well as papers by leading researchers specifically solicited for this book. The articles are organized into topical sections on - learning, cooperation, and communication - emergence and evolution in multi-agent systems - theoretical foundations of adaptive agents

This book constitutes the refereed post-proceedings of the International Workshop on Agents, Norms and Institutions for Regulated Multiagent Systems, ANIREM 2005, and the International Workshop on Organizations in Multi-Agent Systems, OOOP 2005, held in Utrecht, The Netherlands, July 2005. This is the first volume in a new series on issues in Coordination, Organizations, Institutions and Norms (COIN) in multi-agent systems. Topics include modeling, analyzing and programming organizations and more.