The book begins with a chapter on traditional methods of supervised learning, covering recursive least squares learning, mean square error methods, and stochastic approximation. Chapter 2 covers single agent reinforcement learning. Topics include learning value functions, Markov games, and TD learning with eligibility traces. Chapter 3 discusses two player games including two player matrix games with both pure and mixed strategies. Numerous algorithms and examples are presented. Chapter 4 covers learning in multi-player games, stochastic games, and Markov games, focusing on learning multi-player grid games—two player grid games, Q-learning, and Nash Q-learning. Chapter 5 discusses differential games, including multi player differential games, actor critique structure, adaptive fuzzy control and fuzzy interference systems, the evader pursuit game, and the defending a territory games. Chapter 6 discusses new ideas on learning within robotic swarms and the innovative idea of the evolution of personality traits. • Framework for understanding a variety of methods and approaches in multi-agent machine learning. • Discusses methods of reinforcement learning such as a number of forms of multi-agent Q-learning • Applicable to research professors and graduate students studying electrical and computer engineering, computer science, and mechanical and aerospace engineering

The purpose of this book is to develop in greater depth some of the methods from the author's Reinforcement Learning and Optimal Control recently published textbook (Athena Scientific, 2019). In particular, we present new research, relating to systems involving multiple agents, partitioned architectures, and distributed asynchronous computation. We pay special attention to the contexts of dynamic programming/policy iteration and control theory/model predictive control. We also discuss in some detail the application of the methodology to challenging discrete/combinatorial optimization problems, such as routing, scheduling, assignment, and mixed integer programming, including the use of neural network approximations within these contexts. The book focuses on the fundamental idea of policy iteration, i.e., start from some policy, and successively generate one or more improved policies. If just one improved policy is generated, this is called rollout, which, based on broad and consistent computational experience, appears to be one of the most versatile and reliable of all reinforcement learning methods. In this book, rollout algorithms are developed for both discrete deterministic and stochastic DP problems, and the development of distributed implementations in both multiagent and multiprocessor settings, aiming to take advantage of parallelism. Approximate policy iteration is more ambitious than rollout, but it is a strictly off-line method, and it is generally far more computationally intensive. This motivates the use of parallel and distributed computation. One of the purposes of the monograph is to discuss distributed (possibly asynchronous) methods that relate to rollout and policy iteration, both in the context of an exact and an approximate implementation involving neural networks or other approximation architectures. Much of the new research is inspired by the remarkable AlphaZero chess program, where policy iteration, value and policy networks, approximate lookahead minimization, and parallel computation all play an important role.

Discover the latest developments in multi-robot coordination techniques with this insightful and original resource Multi-Agent Coordination: A Reinforcement Learning Approach delivers a comprehensive, insightful, and unique treatment of the development of multi-robot coordination algorithms with minimal computational burden and reduced storage requirements when compared to traditional algorithms. The accomplished academics, engineers, and authors provide readers with both a high-level introduction to, and overview of, multi-robot coordination, and in-depth analyses of learning-based planning algorithms. You'll learn about how to accelerate the exploration of the team-goal and alternative approaches to speeding up the convergence of TMAQL by identifying the preferred joint action for the team. The authors also propose novel approaches to consensus Q-learning that address the equilibrium selection problem and a new way of evaluating the threshold value for uniting empires without imposing any significant computation overhead. Finally, the book concludes with an examination of the likely direction of future research in this rapidly developing field. Readers will discover cutting-edge techniques for multi-agent coordination, including: An introduction to multi-agent coordination by reinforcement learning and evolutionary algorithms, including topics like the Nash equilibrium and correlated equilibrium Improving convergence speed of multi-agent Q-learning for cooperative task planning Consensus Q-learning for multi-agent cooperative planning The efficient computing of correlated equilibrium for cooperative q-learning based multi-agent planning A modified imperialist competitive algorithm for multi-agent stick-carrying applications Perfect for academics, engineers, and professionals who regularly work with multi-agent learning algorithms, Multi-Agent Coordination: A Reinforcement Learning Approach also belongs on the bookshelves of anyone with an advanced interest in machine learning and artificial intelligence as it applies to the field of cooperative or competitive robotics.

This is the first comprehensive introduction to multiagent systems and contemporary distributed artificial intelligence that is suitable as a textbook.

Reinforcement learning encompasses both a science of adaptive behavior of rational beings in uncertain environments and a computational methodology for finding optimal behaviors for challenging problems in control, optimization and adaptive behavior of intelligent agents. As a field, reinforcement learning has progressed tremendously in the past decade. The main goal of this book is to present an up-to-date series of survey articles on the main contemporary sub-fields of reinforcement learning. This includes surveys on partially observable environments, hierarchical task decompositions, relational knowledge representation and predictive state representations. Furthermore, topics such as transfer, evolutionary methods and continuous spaces in reinforcement learning are surveyed. In addition, several chapters review reinforcement learning methods in robotics, in games, and in computational neuroscience. In total seventeen different subfields are presented by mostly young experts in those areas, and together they truly represent a state-of-the-art of current reinforcement learning research. Marco Wiering works at the artificial intelligence department of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He has published extensively on various reinforcement learning topics. Martijn van Otterlo works in the cognitive artificial intelligence group at the Radboud University Nijmegen in The Netherlands. He has mainly focused on expressive knowledge representation in reinforcement learning settings.

Adaptive Agents and Multi-Agent Systems is an emerging and exciting interdisciplinary area of research and development involving artificial intelligence, computer science, software engineering, and developmental biology, as well as cognitive and social science. This book surveys the state of the art in this emerging field by drawing together thoroughly selected reviewed papers from two related workshops; as well as papers by leading researchers specifically solicited for this book. The articles are organized into topical sections on - learning, cooperation, and communication - emergence and evolution in multi-agent systems - theoretical foundations of adaptive agents

Multiagent systems is an expanding field that blends classical fields like game theory and decentralized control with modern fields like computer science and machine learning. This monograph provides a concise introduction to the subject, covering the theoretical foundations as well as more recent developments in a coherent and readable manner. The text is centered on the concept of an agent as decision maker. Chapter 1 is a short introduction to the field of multiagent systems. Chapter 2 covers the basic theory of singleagent decision making under uncertainty. Chapter 3 is a brief introduction to game theory, explaining classical concepts like Nash equilibrium. Chapter 4 deals with the fundamental problem of coordinating a team of collaborative agents. Chapter 5 studies the problem of multiagent reasoning and decision making under partial observability. Chapter 6 focuses on the design of protocols that are stable against manipulations by self-interested agents. Chapter 7 provides a short introduction to the rapidly expanding field of multiagent reinforcement learning. The material can be used for teaching a half-semester course on multiagent systems covering, roughly, one chapter per lecture.