The Complexity of Synthesizing Uniform Strategies

We investigate uniformity properties of strategies. These properties involve sets of plays in order to express useful constraints on strategies that are not \mu-calculus definable. Typically, we can state that a strategy is observation-based. We propose a formal language to specify uniformity properties, interpreted over two-player turn-based arenas equipped with a binary relation between plays. This way, we capture e.g. games with winning conditions expressible in epistemic temporal logic, whose underlying equivalence relation between plays reflects the observational capabilities of agents (for example, synchronous perfect recall). Our framework naturally generalizes many other situations from the literature. We establish that the problem of synthesizing strategies under uniformity constraints based on regular binary relations between plays is non-elementary complete.Comment: In Proceedings SR 2013, arXiv:1303.007

Uniform Strategies

We consider turn-based game arenas for which we investigate uniformity properties of strategies. These properties involve bundles of plays, that arise from some semantical motive. Typically, we can represent constraints on allowed strategies, such as being observation-based. We propose a formal language to specify uniformity properties and demonstrate its relevance by rephrasing various known problems from the literature. Note that the ability to correlate different plays cannot be achieved by any branching-time logic if not equipped with an additional modality, so-called R in this contribution. We also study an automated procedure to synthesize strategies subject to a uniformity property, which strictly extends existing results based on, say standard temporal logics. We exhibit a generic solution for the synthesis problem provided the bundles of plays rely on any binary relation definable by a finite state transducer. This solution yields a non-elementary procedure.Comment: (2012

A characterization of sequential equilibrium in terms of AGM belief revision

In [G. Bonanno, Rational choice and AGM belief revision, Artificial Intelligence, 2009] a semantics for one-stage AGM belief revision was proposed based on choice frames, borrowed from the rational choice literature. In this paper we extend the semantics of choice frames to deal with iterated belief revision and use the corresponding structures to analyze extensive-form games. Choice frames can be used to represent a player's initial beliefs and disposition to change those beliefs when informed that it is her turn to move. If the frame satisfies AGM-consistency and a natural postulate for iterated belief revision, then it is rationalizable by a total pre-order on the set of histories. We show that three properties of this total pre-order, together with the hypothesis of agreement among players, provide a characterization of the notion of consistent assessment, which is the central component of the notion of sequential equilibrium proposed by Kreps and Wilson [Econometrica, 1982].Choice function, AGM belief revision, extensive-form game, sequential equilibrium, iterated belief revision, backward induction.

The Category of Node-and-Choice Forms, with Subcategories for Choice-Sequence Forms and Choice-Set Forms

The literature specifies extensive-form games in many styles, and eventually I hope to formally translate games across those styles. Toward that end, this paper defines $\mathbf{NCF}$, the category of node-and-choice forms. The category's objects are extensive forms in essentially any style, and the category's isomorphisms are made to accord with the literature's small handful of ad hoc style equivalences. Further, this paper develops two full subcategories: $\mathbf{CsqF}$ for forms whose nodes are choice-sequences, and $\mathbf{CsetF}$ for forms whose nodes are choice-sets. I show that $\mathbf{NCF}$ is "isomorphically enclosed" in $\mathbf{CsqF}$ in the sense that each $\mathbf{NCF}$ form is isomorphic to a $\mathbf{CsqF}$ form. Similarly, I show that $\mathbf{CsqF_{\tilde a}}$ is isomorphically enclosed in $\mathbf{CsetF}$ in the sense that each $\mathbf{CsqF}$ form with no-absentmindedness is isomorphic to a $\mathbf{CsetF}$ form. The converses are found to be almost immediate, and the resulting equivalences unify and simplify two ad hoc style equivalences in Kline and Luckraz 2016 and Streufert 2019. Aside from the larger agenda, this paper already makes three practical contributions. Style equivalences are made easier to derive by [1] a natural concept of isomorphic invariance and [2] the composability of isomorphic enclosures. In addition, [3] some new consequences of equivalence are systematically deduced.Comment: 43 pages, 9 figure

Verification of Agent-Based Artifact Systems

Artifact systems are a novel paradigm for specifying and implementing business processes described in terms of interacting modules called artifacts. Artifacts consist of data and lifecycles, accounting respectively for the relational structure of the artifacts' states and their possible evolutions over time. In this paper we put forward artifact-centric multi-agent systems, a novel formalisation of artifact systems in the context of multi-agent systems operating on them. Differently from the usual process-based models of services, the semantics we give explicitly accounts for the data structures on which artifact systems are defined. We study the model checking problem for artifact-centric multi-agent systems against specifications written in a quantified version of temporal-epistemic logic expressing the knowledge of the agents in the exchange. We begin by noting that the problem is undecidable in general. We then identify two noteworthy restrictions, one syntactical and one semantical, that enable us to find bisimilar finite abstractions and therefore reduce the model checking problem to the instance on finite models. Under these assumptions we show that the model checking problem for these systems is EXPSPACE-complete. We then introduce artifact-centric programs, compact and declarative representations of the programs governing both the artifact system and the agents. We show that, while these in principle generate infinite-state systems, under natural conditions their verification problem can be solved on finite abstractions that can be effectively computed from the programs. Finally we exemplify the theoretical results of the paper through a mainstream procurement scenario from the artifact systems literature

Reasoning about obligations in Obligationes : a formal approach.

Despite the appearance of `obligation' in their name, medieval obligational dispu- tations between an Opponent and a Respondent seem to many to be unrelated to deontic logic. However, given that some of the example disputations found in me- dieval texts involve Respondent reasoning about his obligations within the context of the disputation, it is clear that some sort of deontic reasoning is involved. In this paper, we explain how the reasoning diers from that in ordinary basic deontic logic, and dene dynamic epistemic semantics within which the medieval obligations can be expressed and the examples evaluated. Obligations in this framework are history- based and closely connected to action, thus allowing for comparisons with, e.g., the knowledge-based obligations of Pacuit, Parikh, and Cogan, and stit-theory. The con- tributions of this paper are twofold: The introduction of a new type of obligation into the deontic logic family, and an explanation of the precise deontic concepts involved in obligationes

Reasoning about Obligations in Obligationes: A Formal Approach

Despite the appearance of `obligation' in their name, medieval obligational dispu- tations between an Opponent and a Respondent seem to many to be unrelated to deontic logic. However, given that some of the example disputations found in me- dieval texts involve Respondent reasoning about his obligations within the context of the disputation, it is clear that some sort of deontic reasoning is involved. In this paper, we explain how the reasoning diers from that in ordinary basic deontic logic, and dene dynamic epistemic semantics within which the medieval obligations can be expressed and the examples evaluated. Obligations in this framework are history- based and closely connected to action, thus allowing for comparisons with, e.g., the knowledge-based obligations of Pacuit, Parikh, and Cogan, and stit-theory. The con- tributions of this paper are twofold: The introduction of a new type of obligation into the deontic logic family, and an explanation of the precise deontic concepts involved in obligationes