This is the first comprehensive introduction to multiagent systems and contemporarydistributed artificial intelligence that is suitable as a textbook. The book provides detailedcoverage of basic topics as well as several closely related ones.Unlike traditional textbooks, thebook brings together many leading experts, guaranteeing a broad and diverse base of knowledge andexpertise. It emphasizes aspects of both theory and application, and provides many illustrations andexamples. Also included are thought-provoking exercises of varying degrees of difficulty and atwenty-page glossary of terms found in the study of agents, multiagent systems, and distributedartificial intelligence.The book can be used for teaching as well as self-study, and is designed tomeet the needs of both researchers and practitioners. In view of the interdisciplinary nature of thefield, it will be a useful reference not only for computer scientists and engineers, but for socialscientists and management and organization scientists as well.Contributors : Gul A. Agha, KathleenM. Carley, Jose Cuena, Edmund H. Durfee, Clarence Ellis, Les Gasser, Michael P. Georgeff, Michael N.Huhns, Toru Ishida, Nadeem Jamali, Sascha Ossowski, H. Van Dyke Parunak, Anand S. Rao, Tuomas W.Sandholm, Sandip Sen, Munindar P. Singh, Larry M. Stephens, Gerard Tel, Jacques Wainer, GerhardWeiss, Michael J. Wooldridge, Makoto Yokoo.