An Artificial Immune System based on the innate immune response for a multi-agent object transportation

In this paper, a new cognitive model for a multi-agent object transportation is proposed. Such model is inspired by the innate immune response. Some relevant characteristics of macrophages, dendritic cells and the complement system which belong to the innate immune response are modeled and incorporated in this artificial immune system; particulary the function of pattern-recognition receptors and complement receptors on macrophages and dendritic cells to detect an antigen and the function of complement molecules to flag antigens. The goal of the multi-agent system is to transport scattered objects from an unknown dynamic environment to a specific storage room. For this purpose, the exploration and mapping problems are handled by agents that emulate the behavior of complement molecules and the object transportation is performed by agents that emulate the behavior of a macrophage and a dendritic cell. The agents and their funcionality were implemented and validated using the Player/Stage platform obtaining good results.