Key research themes
1. What are the design patterns and architectural frameworks that effectively capture agency properties in agent-based system development?
This theme focuses on how agent-oriented system design differs from traditional object-oriented approaches by emphasizing autonomy, social interaction, and internal mental states (e.g., beliefs, desires, intentions). Capturing these notions requires distinct design patterns, architectures, and methodologies that reflect agency concepts at varying abstraction levels. Such frameworks provide reusable building blocks to develop robust, flexible, and adaptive multi-agent systems, which is critical given the increasing adoption of agents in complex and distributed environments.
2. How can flexible, scalable, and interoperable platforms support the development and deployment of large-scale agent-based systems in dynamic, distributed environments?
This research area addresses the practical challenges of building multi-agent systems that operate reliably and efficiently across diverse and distributed contexts such as industrial automation, energy markets, and communication networks. It includes platform architectures that support virtual organizations, standardized communication protocols, runtime reconfiguration, and interoperability between heterogeneous agent systems. Such platforms enable scalability, flexibility, and integration of agent technologies into real-world applications.
3. What theoretical and empirical insights guide the modeling, adaptation, and organization of agent societies and hierarchical multi-agent organizations?
This theme studies how agent-based models represent social aspects such as norms, roles, organizational structures, and dynamic adaptation within agent societies or organizations. It integrates concepts from normative systems, social science theories, and computational frameworks to enable agents to fulfil dynamic responsibilities, adapt to changing organizational requirements, and support open, flexible coordination. Such modeling is fundamental for developing autonomous agents capable of realistic social behavior and cooperative problem-solving.