Hypergame Analysis in E-Commerce: A Preliminary Report

In usual game theory, it is normally assumed that "all the players see the same game", i.e., they are aware of each other's strategies and preferences. This assumption is very strong for real life where differences in perception affecting the decision making process seem to be the rule rather the exception. Attempts have been made to incorporate misperceptions of various types, but most of these attempts are based on quantities (as probabilities, risk factors, etc.) which are too subjective in general. One approach that seems to be very attractive is to consider that the players are trying to play "different games" in a hypergame. In this paper, we present a hypergame approach as an analysis tool in the context of multiagent environments. Precisely, we first sketch a brief formal introduction to hypergames. Then we explain how agents can interact through communication or through a mediator when they have different views and particularly misperceptions on others' games. After that, we show how agents can take advantage of misperceptions. Finally, we conclude and present some future work. Dans les jeux classiques, il est supposé que "tous les joueurs voient le même jeu'', i.e., que les joueurs sont au courant des stratégies et des préférences des uns et des autres. Aux vu des applications réelles, cette supposition est très forte dans la mesure où les différences de perception affectant la prise de décision semblent plus relevées de la règle que de l'exception. Des tentatives ont été faites, par le passé, pour incorporer les distorsions aux niveaux des perceptions, mais la plupart de ces tentatives ont été essentiellement basées sur le "quantitatif" (comme les probabilités, les facteurs de risques, etc.) et par conséquent, trop subjectives en général. Une approche qui semble être attractive pour pallier à cela, consiste à voir les joueurs comme jouant "différents jeux'' dans une sorte d'hyper-jeu. Dans ce papier, nous présentons une approche "hyper-jeu'' comme outil d'analyse entre agents dans le cadre d'un environnement multi-agent. Nous donnons un aperçu (très succinct) de la formalisation d'un tel hyper-jeux et nous expliquerons ensuite, comment les agents pourraient intervenir via un agent-médiateur quand ils ont des perceptions différentes. Après cela, nous expliquerons comment les agents pourraient tirer avantage des perceptions différentes.Game Theory, Hypergame, Mediation, Théorie des jeux, hyper-jeux, médiation

Simultaneous Task Subdivision and Assignment in the FRACTAL Multi-robot System

This paper presents a negotiation protocol for simultaneous task subdivision and assignment in a heterogeneous multi-robot system. The protocol is based on an abstraction of the concept of task that allows it to be applied independently on the actual task, and adopts Rubinsteins’s alternate offers protocol extended with a co-evolutionary step in search for the best (counter)-offer. The protocol has been tested on computer simulated application scenarios

Algorithmic Mechanism Construction bridging Secure Multiparty Computation and Intelligent Reasoning

This work presents the construction of intelligent algorithmic mechanism based on multidimensional view of intelligent reasoning, threat analytics, cryptographic solutions and secure multiparty computation. It is basically an attempt of the cross fertilization of distributed AI, algorithmic game theory and cryptography. The mechanism evaluates innate and adaptive system immunity in terms of collective, machine, collaborative, business and security intelligence. It also shows the complexity analysis of the mechanism and experimental results on three test cases: (a) intrusion detection, (b) adaptively secure broadcast and (c) health security

Autonomous Agents for Business Process Management

Traditional approaches to managing business processes are often inadequate for large-scale organisation-wide, dynamic settings. However, since Internet and Intranet technologies have become widespread, an increasing number of business processes exhibit these properties. Therefore, a new approach is needed. To this end, we describe the motivation, conceptualization, design, and implementation of a novel agent-based business process management system. The key advance of our system is that responsibility for enacting various components of the business process is delegated to a number of autonomous problem solving agents. To enact their role, these agents typically interact and negotiate with other agents in order to coordinate their actions and to buy in the services they require. This approach leads to a system that is significantly more agile and robust than its traditional counterparts. To help demonstrate these benefits, a companion paper describes the application of our system to a real-world problem faced by British Telecom

Tasks for Agent-Based Negotiation Teams:Analysis, Review, and Challenges

An agent-based negotiation team is a group of interdependent agents that join together as a single negotiation party due to their shared interests in the negotiation at hand. The reasons to employ an agent-based negotiation team may vary: (i) more computation and parallelization capabilities, (ii) unite agents with different expertise and skills whose joint work makes it possible to tackle complex negotiation domains, (iii) the necessity to represent different stakeholders or different preferences in the same party (e.g., organizations, countries, and married couple). The topic of agent-based negotiation teams has been recently introduced in multi-agent research. Therefore, it is necessary to identify good practices, challenges, and related research that may help in advancing the state-of-the-art in agent-based negotiation teams. For that reason, in this article we review the tasks to be carried out by agent-based negotiation teams. Each task is analyzed and related with current advances in different research areas. The analysis aims to identify special challenges that may arise due to the particularities of agent-based negotiation teams.Comment: Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 201

Correspondences and Contradictions in International and Domestic Conflict Resolution: Lessons From General Theory and Varied Contexts

Does the field of conflict resolution have any broadly applicable theories that work across the different domains of international and domestic conflict? Or, are contexts, participants, and resources so domain specific and variable that only thick descriptions of particular contexts will do? These are important questions which have been plaguing me in this depressing time for conflict resolution professionals, from September 11,2001 (9/11), to the war against Iraq. Have we learned anything about conflict resolution that really does improve our ability to describe, predict, and act to reduce unnecessary and harmful conflict? These are the questions I want to explore in this essay, all the while knowing that I will ask more questions than I have answers to. My hope is to spark more rigorous attention to the possibility of comparative dispute resolution study and practice, using key concepts, theories, empirical studies, practical wisdom, and experiential insights to spark and encourage more multi-level and multi-unit analysis of some of our shared propositions

SECURE MULTI-PARTY COMPUTATION: HOW TO SOLVE THE CONFLICT BETWEEN SECURITY & BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

Abstract: This work defines the security intelligence of a system based on secure multi-party computation in terms of correctness, fairness, rationality, trust, honesty, transparency, accountability, reliability, consistency, confidentiality, data integrity, non-repudiation, authentication, authorization, correct identification, privacy, safety and audit. It defines the security intelligence of a system comprehensively with a novel concept of collective intelligence. The cryptographic notion of security is applied to assess, analyze and mitigate the risks of bio-terrorism today. The definition of bioterrorism has been changed in terms of information security. This work also tries to resolve the conflict between the security intelligence and business intelligence in the context of bio-terrorism and highlights the new cryptographic challenges. Keywords: Security intelligence, Threat analytics, Business intelligence, Cross border bio-terrorism, Secure multi-party computation, Applied cryptography

Control Patterns in a Health Care Network

In this paper we present control patterns for the analysis and design of administrative control mechanisms in a network organization. A control pattern is a description of a generic and reusable control mechanism that solves a specific control problem, to be selected on the basis of the context. To represent the context and solution, we analyze a network organization as a set of actors who transfer objects of economic value. The usefulness and adequacy of the control patterns is demonstrated by a case study of the governance and control mechanisms of the Dutch public health insurance network for exceptional medical expenses (AWBZ)

Software Agents for Electronic Marketplaces: Current and Future Research Directions

The premise of software agents to define the structural and operational models of the virtual marketplace of the future can account for the increased interest regarding their application in areas where they can add substantial value in terms of automation and functionality. At the heart of such a marketplace rests an ontology modeling the domain upon which a nucleus of agent-based services can be constructed. Negotiation services hold the dominant position in terms of the attention they have received in research. Complementary to them, but no less important, are the advising services representing support functionality that is required throughout the cycle of a deal; from the expressed intention of the two parties to eventual maturity and closure. In this paper we focus on research trends and on their possible future development for ontologies and the above service categories emphasizing on the role of software agents in this context. A review and analysis of past and present works helps to formulate sets of questions that future research will seek to address