Publication - MACRON: An Architecture for Multi-Agent Cooperative Information Gathering

Authors: Decker, Keith, Lesser, Victor, Prasad, Nagendra, and Wagner, Thomas
Title: MACRON: An Architecture for Multi-Agent Cooperative Information Gathering
Abstract: The complexity of the modern information carrying landscape requires a sophisticated view in which information is acquired rather than simply retrieved, where the process must be dynamic, incremental, and constrained by resource limitations. In this paper, we describe a multi-agent architecture called MACRON based on the Cooperative Information Gathering (CIG) paradigm designed specifically for such complex information gathering environments. Top level user queries drive the creation of partially elaborated information gathering plans, resulting in the employment of multiple cooperative agents for the purpose of achieving goals and subgoals within those plans. Agents in MACRON incorporate capabilities to exploit subproblem interdependencies, manage uncertainty inherent in multi-agent search, intelligently trade-off solution quality for resource limitations and exploit or avoid redundancy as needed.
Keywords: BIG, Information Retrieval
Publication: Proccedings of the CIKM Workshop on Intelligent Information Agents
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Date: December 1995
Sources: PS: /Documents/macron.ps
PDF: /Documents/macron.pdf
Reference: Decker, Keith, Lesser, Victor, Prasad, Nagendra, and Wagner, Thomas. MACRON: An Architecture for Multi-Agent Cooperative Information Gathering. Proccedings of the CIKM Workshop on Intelligent Information Agents. December 1995.
bibtex: 
@article{Decker-155,
  author    = "Keith Decker and Victor Lesser and Nagendra Prasad
               and Thomas Wagner",
  title     = "{MACRON: An Architecture for Multi-Agent
               Cooperative Information Gathering}",
  journal   = "Proccedings of the CIKM Workshop on Intelligent
               Information Agents",
  month     = "December",
  year      = "1995",
  address   = "Baltimore, Maryland",
  url       = "http://mas.cs.umass.edu/paper/155",
}