Using MICE to study intelligent dynamic coordination

To improve the exchange of ideas, formalisms, and techniques among distributed artificial intelligence researchers, the authors have developed MICE as a standard and flexible testbed for experimentation. MICE allows an experimenter to specify the constraints and characteristics of an environment in which agents are simulated to act and interact, and does not assume any particular implementation of an agent's reasoning architecture. MICE therefore provides a platform for investigating and evaluating alternative reasoning architectures and coordination mechanisms in many different simulated environments. The authors outline the design of MICE and illustrate its flexibility by describing simulations that model coordination among heterogeneous agents in cooperative and competitive domains.<>