Multi-Agent Systems: Applications and Directions

A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Systems & Control Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 August 2026 | Viewed by 519

Special Issue Editors

Faculty of Data Science, City University of Macau, Avenida Padre Tomás Pereira, Taipa, Macau SAR 999078, China
Interests: multi-agent systems; incentive allocation problem; social influence; reinforcement learning
School of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, 55 Wellesley Street East, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
Interests: multi-agent systems; social network; social influence; knowledge graph; natural language processing

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Multi-agent systems (MASs) have emerged as a powerful paradigm for modeling complex, distributed, and intelligent systems across diverse domains, including robotics, smart grids, transportation, healthcare, social networks, and industrial automation. By enabling autonomous agents to collaborate, compete, or negotiate, MASs offers scalable and adaptive solutions to real-world challenges. Moreover, with the increase in the use of large language models (LLMs), MASs are undergoing a transformative shift. LLMs can now serve as reasoning engines, communication facilitators, and decision-making coordinators for autonomous agents. This Special Issue aims to explore cutting-edge research and applications of multi-agent systems, highlighting innovative methodologies, algorithms, and case studies that demonstrate their transformative potential. We welcome contributions that address theoretical advances, practical implementations, and interdisciplinary applications of MASs, fostering discussions on scalability, robustness, learning, and coordination in dynamic environments.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Distributed AI and cooperative/competitive multi-agent learning;
  • MASs for autonomous robotics and swarm intelligence;
  • Game-theoretic approaches and mechanism design in MASs;
  • MASs in smart cities, energy systems, and IoT networks;
  • MASs for social sciences;
  • Human–agent interaction in MASs;
  • Agent-based recommender systems;
  • Generative AI in MASs;
  • LLM-driven agents.

Dr. Shiqing Wu
Dr. Weihua Li
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • multi-agent systems
  • agent-based modeling
  • distributed systems
  • autonomous agent

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

22 pages, 3750 KB  
Article
An Improved DHKE-Based Encryption–Decryption Mechanism for Formation Control of MASs Under Hybrid Attacks
by Kairui Liu, Ruimei Zhang and Linli Zhang
Electronics 2026, 15(2), 401; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics15020401 - 16 Jan 2026
Viewed by 203
Abstract
This work studies the formation control problem of general linear multi-agent systems (MASs) under hybrid attacks that include man-in-the-middle attacks (MITM) and denial-of-service attacks (DoS). First, an improved Diffie–Hellman key exchange (DHKE)-based encryption–decryption mechanism is proposed. This mechanism combines the challenge–response mechanism and [...] Read more.
This work studies the formation control problem of general linear multi-agent systems (MASs) under hybrid attacks that include man-in-the-middle attacks (MITM) and denial-of-service attacks (DoS). First, an improved Diffie–Hellman key exchange (DHKE)-based encryption–decryption mechanism is proposed. This mechanism combines the challenge–response mechanism and hash function, which can achieve identity authentication, detect MITM attacks and ensure the confidentiality and integrity of information. Second, considering that DoS attacks on different channels are independent, a division model for distributed DoS attacks is established, which can classify attacks into different patterns. Third, an edge-based event-triggered (ET) formation control scheme is proposed. This control method only relies on the information of neighbor agents, which not only saves communication resources but also resists distributed DoS attacks. Finally, sufficient conditions for the implementation of formation control for MASs under hybrid attacks are provided, and the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed strategy are verified by simulation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multi-Agent Systems: Applications and Directions)
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