Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
In this case a function maps the agent to the corresponding entity,
which represents the tangible part (i. e., body) of the agent:
embody
:
agent
→
entity
(2.10)
In this way, embodiment is the central relation between agents and
the environment [52, 69]. Some authors extend the scope of the
environment even one step further and state that the environment
not only consists of all the entities, 'but also those principles and
processes under which the agents exist and communicate' [95].
Regarding the spatial aspect of an environment, usually no con-
straints are given and a partitioning is assumed to be possible, i. e.,
'each agent environment can be thought of as a whole or it can be sub-
divided into discrete regions' [95]. Depending on the represented sys-
tem under investigation, the environment may be non-spatial, discrete
or continuous and a further distinction can be made between absolute
and relative locality of the entities within the environment [70, 95].
2.4.2 Dynamics
As mentioned in the previous section, the simulated environment can
be seen as consisting of environmental entities and environmental
properties, e.g., overall temperature. Additionally, the environment
may even have its own dynamics, e. g., temperature changes. There-
fore, dynamics refers to the evolution of the simulated environment
(environmental entities and properties) over time.
Similar to entities being either active or passive, also the environ-
ment itself can be characterized in this way: in contrast to a passive en-
vironment where all changes in the environment are reactions to some
actions by the agents, an active environment possesses dynamics which
are independent from the embedded agents actions and may change
the state without some agent causing it [70][147, 99, 100]. With
respect to the previously mentioned embedding, not only agents can
initiate activities but also entities not embodying any agent [70, 52].
The real environment is typically dynamic, meaning that the envir-
onment changes in ways beyond the agents' control. Therefore the
