Autonomous Multiagent Systems

Instructor: Peter Stone

Welcome!

• Please follow instructions on course web page:– Send info for class account– Get on the mailing list

(Even if you’re still shopping – you can’t do the assignment without a class account.)

Today

• A brief introduction to autonomous agents– Details in the readings for next week

• An introduction to Robocup: robot soccer world cup– Your programming assignments will be in the

RoboCup simulator.

Words without (accepted) definitions

• Intelligence

• Agent

• But there are examples….

All proposed definitions include toomuch or leave gaps.

Intelligent (autonomous) Agents

• Autonomous robot• Information gathering agent

– Find me the cheapest…

• E-commerce agents– Decides what to buy/sell and does it

• Air-traffic controller• Meeting scheduler• Computer-game-playing agent

Not Intelligent Agents

• Thermostat

• Telephone

• Answering machine

• Pencil

• Java object

Agents vs. Objects

• Agents decide what to do

• Object methods are called externally

• Agents react flexibly to sensory inputs

My Requirement of Agents

• They must sense their environment

• They must decide what action to take (“think”)

• They must execute the action in their environment

For more on agents…

• Assignment 1 readings• Written assignment (on web page) is to

identify an intelligent agent not listed above and not defined in the readings

• Programming assignment (on web page) is to get familiar with the RoboCup simulator– No real programming this week, but there is

something to turn in.

RoboCup

• The rest of today is an introduction to RoboCup– A great domain for studying agents– Basis of your programming assignments

• Today: video about all of RoboCup including work with real robots, diaster rescue, etc.

• This class: all in the RoboCup simulator