A Framework for Hierarchical Agent Systems

Many systems in the world are hierarchical and agentbased. These systems have natural higher levels in which agents are composites of lower-level agents and their environment. One example of such a system is a manycolony social insect system, such as those of Harvester Ants (1). At the lower level of description, the agents of the colony are individual ants, which act in their environment. At a higher level we describe colonies as “emergent composite” agents, containing multiple antagents and their nest. Other examples of hierarchical agent systems are Swarm simulations (3), biological organisms (8), and urban transport networks (4).