MLFC: From 10 to 50 Planners in the Multi-Agent Programming Contest

Book chapter

Cardoso, R. C., Ferrando, A., Papacchini, F., Luckcuck, M., Linker, S. and Payne, T. R. 2021. MLFC: From 10 to 50 Planners in the Multi-Agent Programming Contest. in: Ahlbrecht, T., Dix, J., Fiekas, N. and Krausburg, T. (ed.) The Multi-Agent Programming Contest 2021 One-and-a-Half Decades of Exploring Multi-Agent Systems Switzerland Springer. pp. 82–107
AuthorsCardoso, R. C., Ferrando, A., Papacchini, F., Luckcuck, M., Linker, S. and Payne, T. R.
EditorsAhlbrecht, T., Dix, J., Fiekas, N. and Krausburg, T.
Abstract

In this paper, we describe the strategies used by our team, MLFC, that led us to achieve the 2nd place in the 15th
edition of the Multi-Agent Programming Contest. The scenario used in the contest is an extension of the previous edition (14th) “Agents Assemble” wherein two teams of agents move around a 2D grid and compete to assemble complex block structures. We discuss the languages and tools used during the development of our team. Then, we summarise the main strategies that were carried over from our previous participation in the 14th edition and list the limitations (if any) of using these strategies in the latest contest edition. We also developed new strategies that were made specifically for the extended scenario: cartography (determining the size of the map); formal verification of the map merging protocol (to provide assurances that it works when increasing the number of agents); plan cache (efficiently scaling the number of planners); task achievement (forming groups of agents to achieve tasks); and bullies (agents that focus on stopping agents from the opposing team). Finally, we give a brief overview of our performance in the contest and discuss what we believe were our shortcomings.

KeywordsMulti-Agent Programming Contest; Multi-Agent Systems; Automated Planning
Page range82–107
Year2021
Book titleThe Multi-Agent Programming Contest 2021 One-and-a-Half Decades of Exploring Multi-Agent Systems
PublisherSpringer
Place of publicationSwitzerland
Series Lecture Notes in Computer Science
ISBN9783030885489
9783030885496
ISSN0302-9743
1611-3349
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88549-6_4
Web address (URL)https://arxiv.org/pdf/2110.08172
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88549-6_4
Output statusPublished
Publication dates01 Oct 2021
Publication process dates
Deposited31 Jan 2023
EventThe Multi-Agent Programming Contest 2021 One-and-a-Half Decades of Exploring Multi-Agent Systems
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