Ranjit Nair

I envision a tomorrow where intelligent agents, broadly defined as autonomous software entities, will pervade our lives, making decisions on our behalf by working closely with other agents as part of multiagent teams. Such multiagent teams will be increasingly entrusted with complex tasks where decisions need to be made under uncertainty and where these decisions are linked to critical factors like loss of valuable resources.

My research has focused on multiagent theory and practice that I believe will make this dream a reality. In particular, my work has been focused on distributed partially observable Markov decision problems (distributed POMDPs) and their application to a range of complex domains like sensor nets, mission rehearsal simulations, disaster rescue, and personal assistant teams. Some of my previous work include a hybrid BDI-POMDP framework for multiagent teaming, joint equilibrium-based search for policies (JESP) for distributed POMDPs, and communicative JESP. My most recent work has been on applying distributed constraint optimization (DCOP) approaches to networked distributed POMDPs.

Select Conference Papers and Journal Articles

  1. Pradeep Varakantham, Ranjit Nair, Milind Tambe, Makoto Yokoo: "Winning back the cup for distributed POMDPs: Planning over continuous belief spaces", Proceedings of the Fifth International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), 2006.
    (PDF) Acceptance Rate: 22%
  2. Ranjit Nair, Pradeep Varakantham, Milind Tambe and Makoto Yokoo: "Networked Distributed POMDPs: A Synthesis of Distributed Constraint Optimization and POMDPs", Proceedings of the Twentieth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-05), 2005 .
    (PDF) Acceptance Rate: 18%
  3. Ranjit Nair, Milind Tambe: "Hybrid BDI-POMDP Framework for Multiagent Teaming", Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR), Vol. 23, pp. 367-420, 2005.
    (PDF)
  4. Ranjit Nair:"Coordinating Multiagent Teams in Uncertain Domains using Distributed POMDPs", Ph. D. Thesis, University of Southern California, 2004.
    (PDF)
  5. Ranjit Nair, Milind Tambe, Stacy Marsella and Taylor Raines: "Automated Assistants for Analyzing Team Behaviors", Journal of Automated Agents and Multi-agent Systems (JAAMAS), Vol. 8(1), Kluwer Publication, pp. 69-111, 2004.
    (PDF)
  6. Ranjit Nair, Maayan Roth, Makoto Yokoo and Milind Tambe: "Communication for Improving Policy Computation in Distributed POMDPs", Proceedings of The Third International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS-04), 2004.
    (Post-script/PDF) Acceptance Rate: 24%
  7. Ranjit Nair, David Pynadath, Makoto Yokoo, Milind Tambe and Stacy Marsella: "Taming Decentralized POMDPs: Towards Efficient Policy Computation for Multiagent Settings", Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-03), 2003.
    (Post-script/PDF) Acceptance Rate: 21%
  8. Ranjit Nair, Milind Tambe and Stacy Marsella: "Role Allocation and Reallocation in Multiagent Teams: Towards a Practical Analysis", Proceedings of The Second International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS-03), 2003.
    (Post-script/PDF) Acceptance Rate: 25%
  9. Ranjit Nair, Milind Tambe and Stacy Marsella: "Team Formation for Reformation in Multiagent Domains like RoboCupRescue", Proceedings of RoboCup-2002 International Symposium, G. Kaminka, P. Lima and R. Roja (Eds.) Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer Verlag, 2003.
    (Post-script/PDF) Acceptance Rate: 22%

Book Chapters

  1. Ranjit Nair, Milind Tambe and Stacy Marsella: "The Role of Emotions in Multiagent Teamwork", Who needs emotions: the brain meets the robot, Jean-Marc Fellous and Michael Arbib (Eds.), Oxford University Press, 2005.
  2. Hyuckchul Jung, Ranjit Nair, Milind Tambe and Stacy Marsella: "Computational Models for Multiagent Coordination Analysis: Extending Distributed POMDP Models", Formal Approaches to Agent-Based Systems, M. Hinchey, J. Rash, W Truszkowski, C. Rouff, D. Gordon-Spears (Eds.), Springer Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 2699, 2003.
    (Post-script/ PDF).
  3. Ranjit Nair, Takayuki Ito, Milind Tambe and Stacy Marsella, "Task Allocation in the Rescue Simulation Domain: A Short Note", RoboCup-2001: Robot Soccer World Cup V, A. Birk and S. Coradeschi (Eds.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer Verlag, 2002.
    (PDF)

Other Conference, Symposium and Workshop papers

  1. Yoonheui Kim, Ranjit Nair, Pradeep Varakantham, Milind Tambe and Makoto Yokoo: "Exploiting Locality of Interaction in Networked Distributed POMDPs", Proceedings of the of the AAAI Spring Symposium on Distributed Plan and Schedule Management , 2006.
    (PDF)
  2. Ranjit Nair, Pradeep Varakantham, Milind Tambe and Makoto Yokoo: "Networked Distributed POMDPs: A Synergy of Distributed Constraint Optimization and POMDPs", Proceedings of the Nineteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-05), 2005 (poster).
    (PDF) Acceptance Rate: 22%
  3. Milind Tambe, Emma Bowring, Hyuckchul Jung, Gal Kaminka, Rajiv T. Maheswaran, Janus Marecki, P. Jay Modi, Ranjit Nair, Jonathan P. Pearce, Praveen Paruchuri, David Pynadath, Paul Scerri, Nathan Schurr and Pradeep Varakantham: "Conflicts in Teamwork: Hybrids to the Rescue", Proceedings of the Fourth International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS), 2005.
    (PDF) Milind Tambe's ACM/SIGART Autonomous Agents Research Award Paper
  4. Ranjit Nair, Pradeep Varakantham, Milind Tambe and Makoto Yokoo: "Networked Distributed POMDPs: DCOP-Inspired Distributed POMDPs", Proceedings of the Workshop on Distributed Constraint Reasoning at IJCAI, 2005.
  5. Ranjit Nair, Pradeep Varakantham, Milind Tambe and Makoto Yokoo: "DCOP + Distributed POMDPs = Networked Distributed POMDPs", Proceedings of the Workshop on Game Theoretic and Decision Theoretic Agents (GTDT) at IJCAI, 2005.
  6. Ranjit Nair, Pradeep Varakantham, Milind Tambe and Makoto Yokoo: "Networked Distributed POMDPs: Applying Distributed POMDPs to Large Scale Problems", Proceedings of the Second Workshop on the Coordination of Large-Scale Multi-Agent Systems at AAMAS, 2005.
  7. Ranjit Nair, Pradeep Varakantham, Milind Tambe and Makoto Yokoo: "Exploiting Interaction Structure in Networked Distributed POMDPs", Proceedings of the Workshop on Multiagent Planning and Scheduling at ICAPS, 2005.
  8. Ranjit Nair and Milind Tambe: "Coordinating Teams in Uncertain Environments: A Hybrid BDI-POMDP Approach", Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Programming Multiagent Systems Languages and Tools (PROMAS), at AAMAS-04 (invited paper), 2004.
    (Post-script/PDF)
  9. Ranjit Nair, Milind Tambe and Stacy Marsella: "Integrating Belief-Desire-Intention Approaches with POMDPs: The Case of Team Oriented Programs", Proceedings of the AAAI Spring Symposium on Logical Formalisms for Commonsense Reasoning, 2003.
  10. Ranjit Nair, David Pynadath, Makoto Yokoo, Milind Tambe and Stacy Marsella: "Towards Computing Optimal Policies for Decentralized POMDPs", Proceedings of the Workshop on Game Theoretic and Decision Theoretic Agents at AAAI, 2002.
  11. Ranjit Nair, Milind Tambe, Stacy Marsella and David Pynadath: "Model for Team Formation for Reformation in Multiagent Systems", Proceedings of the Workshop on Coalition Formation at AAAI, 2002.
  12. Ranjit Nair, Milind Tambe, Stacy Marsella and David Pynadath: "R-COM-MTDP: Forming and Comparing Plans for Team Formation in Multiagent Domains", Proceedings of the Workshop on Planning for and with Multiagent Systems at AAAI, 2002.
  13. Ranjit Nair, Milind Tambe, Stacy Marsella and David Pynadath: "Formalizing Team Formation and Reformation in Multiagent Systems", Proceedings of the Workshop on Teamwork and Coalition Formation at AAMAS, 2002.
  14. Ranjit Nair, Milind Tambe and Stacy Marsella: "Team Formation for Reformation", Proceedings of the AAAI Spring Symposium on Intelligent Distributed and Embedded Systems, 2002.
    (Post-script/ PDF)
  15. Takayuki Ito, Ranjit Nair, Milind Tambe and Stacy Marsella: "On a task allocation mechanism among agents based on an auction mechanism in the RobocupRescue simulation", Proceedings of the Society of Instrument and Control Engineering Systems integration division Annual Conference, 2002.
  16. Ranjit Nair, Takayuki Ito, Milind Tambe and Stacy Marsella: "RoboCupRescue: A Proposal and Preliminary Experiences", Proceedings of the Workshop on RoboCup Rescue: Multiagent Approaches to the Simulation and Management of Major Urban Disasters at the Fourth International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems, 2000.
    (Post-script/ PDF)

Demonstrations

  1. Ranjit Nair, Takayuki Ito, Milind Tambe and Stacy Marsella: "Robocup-Rescue Agents: Facing the Challenges of Rapidly Changing Environments", The Fifth International Conference on Autonomous Agents (Agents-2001), Montreal, May 2001.
  2. Ranjit Nair, Emma Bowring and Milind Tambe: "Role Allocation for Disaster Rescue Dispatch using Distributed POMDPs", The Third International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS-2004), New York, July 2004.

External Activities

  1. Co-organizer of the Workshop on Multi-Agent Sequential Decision Making in Uncertain Domains 2006(MSDM-06) at the Fifth International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS), Japan, 2006
  2. Organizing Committee member for RoboCup 2003, Padua, Italy (Rescue Simulation League)
  3. Organizing Committee member for RoboCup 2002, Fukuoka, Japan (Rescue Simulation League)

Awards

  1. Takayuki Ito, Ranjit Nair, Milind Tambe and Stacy Marsella: Silver Medal at Robofesta, an International Robotic Games Festival, RoboCup Rescue Simulation Event, July 2001 .
  2. Ranjit Nair, Takayuki Ito, Milind Tambe and Stacy Marsella: Third Prize at RoboCup 2001, Rescue Simulation League, Seattle, August 2001.

Honor Societies and other memberships

  1. TEAMCORE research group
  2. Upsilon Pi Epsilon Computer Science Honor Society
  3. American Association of Artificial Intelligence

Babu Nation: A satirical take on the ineptitude and corruption in Indian government agencies recounted by a fictional bureaucrat called Babu

Limericks and Rhymes

309/310 Mhatre Pen, B Wing
Senapati Bapat Marg, Dadar
Mumbai 400028, India
Tel: +91-22-24376711
E-Mail: ranjitn@gmail.com