Multi agent protocol creator (mapc): evolving multi agent communications protocols

Multi agent systems rely on communication between agents, typically regulated by protocols, to facilitate cooperation and coordination. To create protocols, multi agent system designers spend an extensive amount of time designing and testing to ensure that all requirements of the new protocol have been met. To aid the creation of multi agent protocols, research has shifted from designing low-level protocols, where every interaction must be outlined, to designing higher-level protocol description languages, which allow high-level interactions to be described. Though the focus of research has shifted, the general process of designing new multi agent protocols has remained consistent and still requires that designers describe actions of agents at various stages of a protocol. This dissertation describes an alternative process for creating protocols: an automatic protocol creator that generates a protocol based on a description of the requirements of the desired protocol. The Multi Agent Protocol Creator (MAPC) was constructed to evolve protocols using genetic programming. To evolve protocols, MAPC must first be given a protocol domain model. This protocol domain model contains all of the information needed to define the requirements of a new protocol in a declarative manner. It includes information to generate potential protocols, try the generated protocols in an appropriate environment and then evaluate their performance once they have been executed. Tests show that MAPC is able to evolve protocols in several test protocol domains. Concise, reasonable protocols, that are tailored to the inputs of the given protocol domain, similar to those that would potentially be programmed by a human, are produced. The use of MAPC will enable agent designers to focus on the desired communication instead of specific protocol details.