<P>Multiagent systems are made up of multiple interacting intelligent agents --computational entities to some degree autonomous and able to cooperate, compete, communicate, actflexibly, and exercise control over their behavior within the frame of their objectives. They arethe enabling technology for a wide range of advanced applications relying on distributed andparallel processing of data, information, and knowledge relevant in domains ranging from industrialmanufacturing to e-commerce to health care. This book offers a state-of-the-art introduction tomultiagent systems, covering the field in both breadth and depth, and treating both theory andpractice. It is suitable for classroom use or independent study. This second edition has beencompletely revised, capturing the tremendous developments in multiagent systems since the firstedition appeared in 1999. Sixteen of the book's seventeen chapters were written for this edition;all chapters are by leaders in the field, with each author contributing to the broad base ofknowledge and experience on which the book rests. The book covers basic concepts of computationalagency from the perspective of both individual agents and agent organizations; communication amongagents; coordination among agents; distributed cognition; development and engineering of multiagentsystems; and background knowledge in logics and game theory. Each chapter includes references, manyillustrations and examples, and exercises of varying degrees of difficulty. The chapters and theoverall book are designed to be self-contained and understandable without additional material.Supplemental resources are available on the book's Web site.</P><P><B>Contributors:</B>Rafael Bordini, Felix Brandt, Amit Chopra,Vincent Conitzer, Virginia Dignum, Ju¨rgen Dix, Ed Durfee, Edith Elkind, Ulle Endriss, AlessandroFarinelli, Shaheen Fatima, Michael Fisher, Nicholas R. Jennings, Kevin Leyton-Brown, EvangelosMarkakis, Lin Padgham, Julian Padget, Iyad Rahwan, Talal Rahwan, Alex Rogers, Jordi Sabater-Mir,Yoav Shoham, Munindar P. Singh, Kagan Tumer, Karl Tuyls, Wiebe van der Hoek, Laurent Vercouter,Meritxell Vinyals, Michael Winikoff, Michael Wooldridge, Shlomo Zilberstein</P>