Robustness of Multi-agent Models: The Example of Collaboration between Turmites with Synchronous and Asynchronous Updating

Abstract

The robusntess of multi-agent systems to simulation conditions is analysed through a precise example, invented by Langton to investigate the foundations of artificial life. This system is composed of simple and memoryless agents, the turmites, which obey simple discrete local rules. While the local rules that govern each agent are kept constant, the interaction between agents are modified through nine variations. Our method consists in varying the updating scheme (synchronous vs. asynchronous) and the local conflict resolution policy (strong or weak exclusion rules). We experimentally estimate the effect of these modifications on three collaborative phenomena. We also analyse how the dynamics at the microscopic scale reflects the robustness of the system at the macroscopic scale. Observations confirm that the definition of the agents' behaviour is not the only setting that matters in the emergence of collaborative phenomena in complex systems: the way the agents are updated is also a key choice.

A Guided Tour of Asynchronous Cellular Automata

“…The solution relies on a framework invented by Ferber and Müller called influence-reaction [44]. Belgacem and Fatès later extended this work by considering a wider range of updating procedures and discovered some phenomena (e.g., gliders) that resisted variations in the updating choices [13].…”

Asynchronous Cellular Automata

“…conservation of the number of particles) [BFC13a]. Similar difficulties arise when agents can move on the cellular grid and one needs to define some procedures to solve the conflicts that may occur when several agents want to modify simultaneously the same cell [CF10,BF12].…”

Robustness Analysis of Holonic Multi-Agent Systems: Application to Traffic Signals Control

“…Uncertain channels have also been considered in [38] and [39]. The robustness of a MAS for collaboration between termites has been studied in [40]. A fault-tolerant infrastructure in Cougar MAS introduced in [41] and applied to a large-scale logistics application over 1000 agents.…”