| This volume presents selected, extended and reviewed versions of the papers presented at the 1st International Workshop on Regulated Agent Systems: Theory and Applications (RASTA 2002), a workshop co-located with the 1st International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS 2002), which was held in Bologna, Italy, in July, 2002. In addition, several new papers on the workshop theme appear here as the result of a further call for participation.
Agent-technology is the latest paradigm of software engineering methodology. The development of autonomous, mobile, and intelligent agents brings new challenges to the field. Agent technologies and multiagent systems are among the most vibrant and active research areas of computer science. At the same time commercial applications of agents are gaining attention. The construction of artificial (agent) societies leads to questions that already have been asked for human societies. Computer scientists have adopted terms like emerging behavior, selforganization, and evolutionary theory in an intuitive manner. Multiagent system researchers have started to develop agents with social abilities and complex social systems.
However, most of these systems lack the foundation of the social sciences. The intention of the RASTA workshop, and of this volume, is to bring together researchers from computer science as well as the social sciences who see their common interest in social theories for the construction and regulation of multiagent systems.
A total of 17 papers appear in this volume, out of 31 papers submitted. They include nine papers presented in the workshop (whose preproceeedings were published as Communications Vol. 318 Mitteilung 318 of Hamburg University, Faculty of Informatics), as well as six new papers. In addition, an invited paper from Bruce Edmonds reflects some aspects of the lively discussions held during the workshop. The selection presented is divided into two major topics. |
