Probabilistic Reasoning in Multiagent Systems A Graphical Models Approach

Probalistic reasoning with graphical models, also known as Bayesian networks or belief networks, has become an active field of research and practice in artifical intelligence, operations research and statistics in the last two decades. The success of this technique in modeling intelligent decision support systems under the centralized and single-agent paradim has been striking. In this book, the author extends graphical dependence models to the distributed and multi-agent paradigm. He identifies the major technical challenges involved in such an endeavor and presents the results gleaned from a decade's research.

This 2002 book investigates the opportunities in building intelligent decision support systems offered by multi-agent distributed probabilistic reasoning. Probabilistic reasoning with graphical models, also known as Bayesian networks or belief networks, has become increasingly an active field of research and practice in artificial intelligence, operations research and statistics. The success of this technique in modeling intelligent decision support systems under the centralized and single-agent paradigm has been striking. Yang Xiang extends graphical dependence models to the distributed and multi-agent paradigm. He identifies the major technical challenges involved in such an endeavor and presents the results. The framework developed in the book allows distributed representation of uncertain knowledge on a large and complex environment embedded in multiple cooperative agents, and effective, exact and distributed probabilistic inference.

Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. Bayesian networks; 3. Belief updating and cluster graphs; 4. Junction tree representation; 5. Belief updating with junction trees; 6. Multiply sectioned Bayesian networks; 7. Linked junction forests; 8. Distributed multi-agent inference; 9. Model construction and verification; 10. Looking into the future; Bibliography; Index.

This 2002 book identifies the technical challenges in building intelligent agents that can cooperate on complex tasks in an uncertain environment and provides a rigorous framework for meeting these challenges. It is a comprehensive book that addresses the subject of probabilistic inference by multiple agents using graphical knowledge representations.