Trends and Questions in Open Multi-agent Systems

This chapter presents a survey of recent trends in the analysis of open multiagent systems, where the set of agents is time-varying.We first introduce the notions of arrivals, departures and replacements of agents in the context of multi-agent systems, including several approaches for the modelling and time evolution.We then provide alternative definitions for concepts that must be adapted to conduct analyses in the open context, such as stability and convergence. We also consider some aspects of open systems that must be taken into account in the design of algorithms. Finally, some applications are presented to illustrate the current importance of open multi-agent systems as well as future perspectives in this framework