The general multiagent scenario with heterogeneous non-communicating agents is depicted in Figure 9. As in the homogeneous case (see Figure 7), the agents are situated differently in the environment which causes them to have different sensory inputs and necessitates their taking different actions. However in this scenario, the agents have much more significant differences. They may have different goals, actions, and/or domain knowledge. This condition of heterogeneity among agents adds a great deal of power for the system designer. In order to focus on the benefits (and complexity) of heterogeneity, the assumption of no communication is retained for this section.
Figure 9: The general heterogeneous MAS scenario. Now agents' goals,
actions, and/or domain knowledge may differ as indicated by the
different fonts. The assumption of no direct interaction remains.