This work addresses the issue of the endogenous control of Multi-Agents Systems (MAS) for solving complex problems, which we explore through the critical resources sharing problem. The complex problems we address are characterized by a combinatorial explosion of number of solutions with the size of the problems, a strong dynamic of the problem's data caused by an open environment in which many events can take place, a huge systemic complexity caused by the interdependencies between the many variables of the problem and a decentralization of the resolution process imposed by a physical and functional distribution of the variables incompatible with a centralized view of the problem. A complete course of the search space associated with such problems is unrealistic in an acceptable time, it is necessary to employ resolution methods known as incomplete. Whatever the incomplete approach considered, the incomplete course of the search space requires a control to maximize the probability of converging to a satisfactory solution. We identify three levels of control of the course of the search space regardless of the used approach : a static control (textit a priori definition of the behavior of the system), a dynamic control (evolving during the resolution according to pre-established mechanisms) and adaptive control (dynamically evolving during resolution). We show that an endogenous control of the system activity, ie. an adaptive control from the agents activity, is necessary to guide the course of the search space in the context of solving complex problems. This work was made in a context of industrial collaboration, they rely on an approach developed in previous work : CESNA (Complex Exchanges Between Stigmergic Negotiating Agents). CESNA is a multi-agent self-organizational approach using agents situated in an environment embodying the problem and used by a resolution process based on a stigmergic negotiation between agents. The application used by the CESNA approach allowing to illustrate this work is the critical resources sharing problem, characterized by a limited set of resources exploited by many consumers. Our contributions are of two kinds : we initially proposed changes in the representation of the problem used by the initial approach (CESNA) to remove restrictions prohibiting scalability, and in a second time we defined a new model (MANA : Multi-level balancing Negotiating Agents) using this new representation with a new resolution process based on endogenous control mechanisms of the system activity. These mechanisms are based on the materialization of the microscopic effects of the macroscopic phenomenon to direct (the path in the search space) to make it noticeable by agents. Our measurements show that this new model allows the scaling (the resolution of industrial problems) and a significant performances improvement of the resolution showing the effectiveness of the control allowed by the mechanisms used.
