CSCE 475/875

Collaborative Topic Summary Assignment 6:

Learning in Multiagent Systems

Assigned: October 29, 2009

Due: 2:00 p.m. November 12, 2009

(Assignment 5 minutes late will not be accepted)

Summary

This summary should include at least the following (a) an overview of the topic – motivations and underlying principles, etc., (b) a list of praises: a description of what you think are the important/useful aspects of the topic, (c) a list of critiques: a description of what you think are the weaknesses of the topic, (d) a list of wishes: what areas of the topic do you think that should be improved, and (e) a list of questions on material that you did not understand from the lectures and textbook. NOTE: These lists should be about the topic, not about the way the topic is presented in the class.

Some ideas: What are the different characteristics of learning in multiagent systems? What is reinforcement learning? How does an agent learn from others and about others? What is the relationship between communication and learning?

Stupid Questions

Suppose that you are an “opportunistic lane changer” when you drive. That is, during rush hours when traffic is heavy, you switch lanes to try to move further ahead more quickly. Suppose that each “switch” is a state-action pair: <s,a> where “s” is the current situation, and “a” is the action to switch. What are the possible factors or issues that one would need to consider in “s”? And if one is to put build a reinforcement learning mechanism to learn how to switch lanes to move further ahead more quickly effectively and efficiently, what other factors should be considered? How should the reward system be designed?

Requirement

You are required to use the software ClassroomWiki to carry out this collaborative writing activity. There is a limit on the number of words allowed for this assignment: 1200 words. Summaries not satisfying this requirement will not be graded. Your topic summary will be graded based on: (1) 10% Overview, (2) 15% Praises, (3) 15% Critiques, (4) 15% Wishes, (5) 15% Questions, (6) 10% Response to Stupid Question, (7) 10% Grammar and Errors, and (8) 10% Requirements. Your individual assignment score will be graded according to that outlined in the course syllabus.