synchronous versus asynchronous collaboration in situated multi-agent systems
According to the taxonomy for agent activity, proposed by V. Parunak, a collaboration is an interaction between agents of a multi-agent system (MAS) whereby the agents explicitly coordinate their actions before they cooperate. We discuss two sub-types of collaboration in the context of situated MASs, namely asynchronous and synchronous collaboration. After setting up collaboration, the interaction between the agents in an asynchronous collaboration happens indirectly through the environment. Agents direct their actions via the perceived state change of their environment. On the other hand, during a synchronous collaboration agents have to act simultaneously and this requires an additional agreement about which actions should be executed. Although they both fit the characteristics of collaboration, the requirements for their implementation is quite different. Whereas agents in an asynchronous collaboration can be implemented as separate processes that act directly into the environment, the implementation of synchronous collaboration is more complex since it requires support for simultaneous actions. In the paper we give examples of both kinds of collaborations and outline the necessary support for their implementation.
synchronization collaboration interaction