In this paper we will propose the use of social robots as interface between users and services in a Smart Environment. We will focus on the need for a robot to recognize the user’s feedback, in order to respond and…

Social robots may help children in their daily health-care related activities, such as adherence to diet and exercises of diabetics. Based on a domain and literature study, we specified three support roles with corresponding bot behaviors: motivator, educator and buddy.…

This paper presents a multiagent recommendation system (RecMAS) able to coordinate the interactions between a user agent (AgUser) and a set of commercial agents (AgComs). It provides a useful service for monitoring changes in the AgUser’s beliefs and decisions based…

In the convergence theory of multisplittings for symmetric positive definite (s.p.d.) matrices it is usually assumed that the weighting matrices are scalar matrices, i.e., multiples of the identity. In this paper, this restrictive condition is eliminated. In its place it…

This special issue of the Journal of Physical Agents is devoted to multi-robot systems. Some might perhaps argue that the term should have been ”multi-agent systems” or ”physical multi-agent systems”, in accordance with the title of the journal. In any…

This paper briefly introduces a summary of the special session on Hybrid Reasoning and Coordination Methods on Multi-Agent Systems, held in conjunction with the 4th International Conference on Hybrid Artificial Intelligence Systems 2009 (HAIS’09). The research papers of this session…

The Workshop of Physical Agents intends to be a forum for information and experience exchange in different areas regarding the concept of agent on physical environments, especially applied to the control and coordination of autonomous systems: robots, mobile robots, industrial…

This special issue of the Journal of Physical Agents is devoted to human interaction with domestic robots. The form, features and future, of domestic robotic devices, from entertainment-based agents through to robotic cleaners, companions, assistants and helpers, are considered and…

Social knowledge is one of the key aspects of MAS in order to face complex problems in dynamical environments. However, it is usually incorporated without specific support on behalf of the platform and that does not let agents take all…

Open societies are situated in dynamic environments and are formed by heterogeneous autonomous agents. In order to ensure social order, norms have been employed as coordination mechanisms. However, the dynamical features of open systems may cause that norms loose their…