Interactions of Multiple Self-Adaptive Mechanisms in Multi-agent Systems

The macro-level properties of a system may emerge from the micro-level behaviour of individuals in the system. There have been numerous suggestions for the addition of meso-level structures as a way to guide this emergence towards desirable outcomes or away from undesirable ones. However, it can be observed that the interaction of the micro and meso levels may cause unexpected properties to arise at all levels of the system. This paper investigates the interleaving of a self-adaptive micro level with a self-organising meso level to explain the macro-level system properties that may occur. A simulation-based test bench is used to perform experiments examining various compositions of adaptive mechanisms at the micro and meso levels of a multi-agent system. The results of these experiments are then analysed using a proposed formalism for multi-level adaptive systems to explain the observed interactions.