Foundations of distributed interaction systems

There are numerous applications where a variety of human and software parti cipants interactively pursue a given task (play a game, engage in a simulat ion, etc.). In this paper, we define a basic architecture for a distributed , interactive system (DIS for short). We then formally define a mathematica l construct called a DIS abstraction that provides a theoretical basis for a software platform for building distributed interactive systems. Our frame work provides a language for building multiagent applications where each ag ent has its own behaviors and where the behavior of the multiagent applicat ion as a whole is governed by one or more "master" agents. Agents in such a multiagent application may compete for resources, may attempt to take acti ons based on incorrect beliefs, may attempt to take actions that conflict w ith actions being concurrently attempted by other agents, and so on. Master agents mediate such conflicts. Our language for building agents (ordinary and master) depends critically on a notion called a "generalized constraint " that we define. All agents attempt to optimize an objective function whil e satisfying such generalized constraints that the agent is bound to preser ve. We develop several algorithms to determine how an agent satisfies its g eneralized constraints in response to events in the multiagent application. We experimentally evaluate these algorithms in an attempt to understand th eir advantages and disadvantages.