Engineering Reliable Multi-Agent Systems

Special Issue of the Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems

There is increasing interest in the application of multi-agent systems (MAS)
technology in safety-critical applications, such as UAVs, healthcare,
manufacturing, etc. However, deployment of MAS in safety-critical applications
will only be achieved if they can be shown to operate reliably. Demonstrating
that a multi-agent system will operate reliably is an extremely challenging
problem. The potential "behaviour space" of many systems (e.g., robots for care
of the elderly) is vastly larger than that addressed by current approaches to
engineering reliable systems. Such systems are implicitly expected to be able to
"do the right thing" in the face of conflicting objectives and in complex,
ill-structured environments. Addressing these challenges cannot be achieved by
incremental improvements to existing software engineering and verification
methodologies, but will require step changes in how we specify, engineer, test
and verify systems.

The special issue targets high-quality papers on current trends in research on
engineering reliable multi-agent systems. Submissions to the special issue may
take the form of original research papers, surveys, and viewpoints offering
perspectives on the future of engineering reliable multi-agent systems.

Relevant topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

* Methodologies for identifying properties that a particular reliable MAS needs 
  to satisfy
* Languages and formalisms for specifying reliability properties
* Individual and collective reliability in MAS
* Techniques and technologies for the engineering of reliable MAS
* Engineering reliable MAS that include learning
* Engineering reliable MAS that include human-machine interaction
* Frameworks, architectures, and infrastructures for reliable agents and MAS
* Programming languages for reliable agents and MAS
* Verification techniques for reliable MAS

Issue Editors

Jurgen Dix, Clausthal University of Technology, dix@tu-clausthal.de 
Brian Logan, University of Nottingham, brian.logan@nottingham.ac.uk 
Michael Winikoff, Victoria University of Wellington, michael.winikoff@vuw.ac.nz


Submission and Reviews Procedures

Special Issues are handled in the normal way via the online Editorial Manager
system found at https://agnt.edmgr.com. Please choose the article type "S.I. :
Engineering Reliable Multi-Agent Systems". Special Issue articles should fulfil
all the standard requirements of any JAAMAS article. Authors should note that
the same criteria apply to articles in Special Issues as to regular articles.

All papers will undergo the same rigorous AGNT review process. Please refer to
the JAMAAS website for detailed instructions on paper submission:

http://www.springer.com/computer/ai/journal/10458

Deadline for Submissions: 15 February 2020
Notification:             15 April 2020
Final Version:            15 June 2020