Multi-Agent Programming Contest 2010 -- Second Call for Participation

[Michael Köster]

=================== Second Call for Participation ====================

Multi-Agent Programming Contest 2010

http://multiagentcontest.org

=======================================================

Organizers:
Tristan Behrens (Clausthal University of Technology)
Jürgen Dix (Clausthal University of Technology)
Jomi Hübner (Federal University of Santa Catarina)
Michael Köster (Clausthal University of Technology)

Steering Committee:
Mehdi Dastani (Utrecht University)
Jürgen Dix (Clausthal University of Technology)
Peter Novak (Czech Technical University)



1. Aims and Scope

This competition is an attempt to stimulate research in the area of
multi-agent system development and programming by
1. identifying key problems,
2. collecting suitable benchmarks, and
3. gathering test cases which require and enforce coordinated action
that can serve as milestones for testing multi-agent programming
languages, platforms and tools.



2. Short Scenario Description

The contest scenario consists of developing a multi-agent system to
solve a cooperative task in a dynamic environment. The environment
is a grid-like world in which virtual cows are moving around
collectively in one or more herds exhibiting a swarm-like behavior.
There are two corrals, each belongs to one of the two agent teams.
The teams of agents compete to control the behavior of animals and
lead them to their own corral. The winning agent team is the one
that scores highest. A detailed scenario description of the scenario is
available at http://multiagentcontest.org.



3. Participation Requirements

The participation in this contest consists of these parts:

1. Declaring the intent to participate by registering to the mailing list.

2. Submission of the description of analysis, design and implementation
of a multi-agent system for the above application. Thus registering to
the contest officially.

3. Participation in the contest tournament by taking part on the final
tournament.

4. Submitting the source-code of your application right after the
tournament.



4. Important Dates

Stating your intent to participate:
	*Now*

Submission of the description and registration to the contest:
	*09 August 2010*

Notification:
	After submission

Camera-Ready of the description:
	After notification

Testing phase:
	09 August 2010 - 31 August 2010

Competition:
	*06 September 2010 - 10 September 2010*

Submission of the source-code and winner announcement:
	13 September 2010



4. Details

4.1 Intention to Participate

Please announce your intention to attend the contest by subscribing to
the mailing list. Participants and all interested colleagues are invited
to subscribe to the mailing list
agentcontest2010 [at] in.tu-clausthal.de

All the important details and announcements including scenario and
communication protocol specifications as well as software release
announcements and bug reports will be announced and discussed via this list.

To subscribe, send an e-mail to
agentcontest2010-subscribe [at] in.tu-clausthal.de
with the subject "subscribe". The confirmation request and welcome
message will be sent to you shortly afterwards. Please follow the
instructions in the automatic mailing list replies.


4.2 Packages

The packages that we published include: 1. the protocol description
that defines the communication scheme between agents and our server, 2.
the scenario description that defines the environment, 3. the MASSim
server, 4. the scenario itself, 5. template-agents implemented in Java,
and 6. an EIS.


4.3 Submissions of the Short Descriptions

We intend to handle the submissions of the short system-descriptions via
EasyChair. We also aim at publishing in the CLIMA (@ECAI)
post-proceedings (still in a planning phase). We will provide details in
time.


4.4 Scenario

The scenario will be *almost the same* as in 2010. The only thing that
changed is the scoring schema. Please read the scenario description for
more details.

4.5 Source Codes Obligation

Note that the submission of the source-codes is obligatory in 2010.