Validating the behavior of self-interested agents in an information market scenario

Abstract

We describe some experimental results within a scenario in a simulation framework we are developing to enable experimentation of multi-agents behavior, measured by the total utility that agents can gather during a given time horizon. In this scenario the population of self-centered agents performs in an 80×80 grid with objects carrying information (infons) of varying utility that several autonomous agents are trying to obtain. This model is an abstraction for a real world information marketplace where agents simply cannot cooperate all the time for various practical reasons. The aim of this work is to show how we can validate the connection of agent local behavior to global behavior in various environmental situations. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2000.