Approaches to multi-agent learning

Systems involving multiple autonomous entities are becoming more and more prominent. Sensor networks, teams of robotic vehicles, and software agents are just a few examples. In order to design these systems, we need methods that allow our agents to autonomously learn and adapt to the changing environments they find themselves in. This thesis explores ideas from game theory, online prediction, and reinforcement learning, tying them together to work on problems in multi-agent learning. We begin with the most basic framework for studying multi-agent learning: repeated matrix games. We quickly realize that there is no such thing as an opponent-independent, globally optimal learning algorithm. Some form of opponent assumptions must be necessary when designing multi-agent learning algorithms. We first show that we can exploit opponents that satisfy certain assumptions, and in a later chapter, we show how we can avoid being exploited ourselves. From this beginning, we branch out to study more complex sequential decision making problems in multi-agent systems, or stochastic games. We study environments in which there are large numbers of agents, and where environmental state may only be partially observable.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Chang, Yu-Han, Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Leslie Pack Kaelbling.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33932

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33932