1,364 research outputs found
Obligation Norm Identification in Agent Societies
Most works on norms have investigated how norms are regulated using institutional mechanisms. Very few works have focused on how an agent may infer the norms of a society without the norm being explicitly given to the agent. This paper describes a mechanism for identifying one type of norm, an obligation norm. The Obligation Norm Inference (ONI) algorithm described in this paper makes use of an association rule mining approach to identify obligation norms. Using agent based simulation of a virtual restaurant we demonstrate how an agent can identify the tipping norm. The experiments that we have conducted demonstrate that an agent in the system is able to add, remove and modify norms dynamically. An agent can also flexibly modify the parameters of the system based on whether it is successful in identifying a norm.Norms, Social Norms, Obligations, Norm Identification, Agent-Based Simulation, Simulation of Norms, Artificial Societies, Normative Multi-Agent Systems (NorMAS)
Exploring the resource recovery potentials of municipal solid waste: a review of solid wastes composting in developing countries
Population explosion, high urbanization and improved living standards have induced rapid changes in quantities and materiacompositions of solid waste generation globally. Until recently solid waste disposal in landfills and open dump sites waconsidered more economical and it is the most widely used methods in developing countries. Hence the potentials in the othealternative methods such as the resource recovery and recycling and their integration into waste management have been scarcelassessed. However, the ever growing challenges posed by the rapidly increasing quantities and compositions of solid wastes ideveloping countries led to the searching for alternative waste disposal methods. In this regard the paper presented an assessmenof the resource potentials of municipal solid waste materials arising from cities in developing countries as a strategy fosustainable solid waste management. Using published data on solid waste composition the paper has identified that there is higpotentials of composting in the solid waste stream from cities in developing countries. In conclusion, it recommended the recoverof organic waste material and papers for composting and the recycling of plastic, metals, textiles and others to explore their resource recovery potentials. This will largely reduce the ultimate quantities of solid waste for disposal and lower the operatincosts. This strategy will achieve sustainable waste management in developing countries. It is hoped that the paper has provided useful guide for wastes management policy decisions in developing countries
Mining International Political Norms from the GDELT Database
Researchers have long been interested in the role that norms can play in
governing agent actions in multi-agent systems. Much work has been done on
formalising normative concepts from human society and adapting them for the
government of open software systems, and on the simulation of normative
processes in human and artificial societies. However, there has been
comparatively little work on applying normative MAS mechanisms to understanding
the norms in human society.
This work investigates this issue in the context of international politics.
Using the GDELT dataset, containing machine-encoded records of international
events extracted from news reports, we extracted bilateral sequences of
inter-country events and applied a Bayesian norm mining mechanism to identify
norms that best explained the observed behaviour. A statistical evaluation
showed that the normative model fitted the data significantly better than a
probabilistic discrete event model.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, pre-print for International Workshop on
Coordination, Organizations, Institutions, Norms and Ethics for Governance of
Multi-Agent Systems (COINE), co-located with AAMAS 202
Reinforcement learning of normative monitoring intensities
Choosing actions within norm-regulated environments involves balancing achieving one’s goals and coping with any penalties for non-compliant behaviour. This choice becomes more complicated in environments where there is uncertainty. In this paper, we address the question of choosing actions in environments where there is uncertainty regarding both the outcomes of agent actions and the intensity of monitoring for norm violations. Our technique assumes no prior knowledge of probabilities over action outcomes or the likelihood of norm violations being detected by employing reinforcement learning to discover both the dynamics of the environment and the effectiveness of the enforcer. Results indicate agents become aware of greater rewards for violations when enforcement is lax, which gradually become less attractive as the enforcement is increased
A Review of Norms and Normative Multiagent Systems
Norms and normative multiagent systems have become the subjects of interest for many researchers. Such interest is caused by the need for agents to exploit the norms in enhancing their performance in a community. The term norm is used to characterize the behaviours of community members. The concept of normative multiagent systems is used to facilitate collaboration and coordination among social groups of agents. Many researches have been conducted on norms that investigate the fundamental concepts, definitions, classification, and types of norms and normative multiagent systems including normative architectures and normative processes. However, very few researches have been found to comprehensively study and analyze the literature in advancing the current state of norms and normative multiagent systems. Consequently, this paper attempts to present the current state of research on norms and normative multiagent systems and propose a norm’s life cycle model based on the review of the literature. Subsequently, this paper highlights the significant areas for future work
Questions related to Bitcoin and other Informational Money
A collection of questions about Bitcoin and its hypothetical relatives
Bitguilder and Bitpenny is formulated. These questions concern technical issues
about protocols, security issues, issues about the formalizations of
informational monies in various contexts, and issues about forms of use and
misuse. Some questions are formulated in the more general setting of
informational monies and near-monies.
We also formulate questions about legal, psychological, and ethical aspects
of informational money. Finally we formulate a number of questions concerning
the economical merits of and outlooks for Bitcoin.Comment: 31 pages. In v2 the section on patterns for use and misuse has been
improved and expanded with so-called contaminations. Other small improvements
were made and 13 additional references have been include
Using Norms To Control Open Multi-Agent Systems
Internet es, tal vez, el avance científico más relevante de nuestros días. Entre
otras cosas, Internet ha permitido la evolución de los paradigmas de computación tradicionales hacia el paradigma de computaciónn distribuida, que se
caracteriza por utilizar una red abierta de ordenadores. Los sistemas multiagente
(SMA) son una tecnolog a adecuada para abordar los retos motivados
por estos sistemas abiertos distribuidos. Los SMA son aplicaciones formadas
por agentes heterog eneos y aut onomos que pueden haber sido dise~nados de
forma independiente de acuerdo con objetivos y motivaciones diferentes. Por
lo tanto, no es posible realizar ninguna hip otesis a priori sobre el comportamiento
de los agentes. Por este motivo, los SMA necesitan de mecanismos
de coordinaci on y cooperaci on, como las normas, para garantizar el orden
social y evitar la aparici on de conictos.
El t ermino norma cubre dos dimensiones diferentes: i) las normas como
un instrumento que gu a a los ciudadanos a la hora de realizar acciones y
actividades, por lo que las normas de nen los procedimientos y/o los protocolos
que se deben seguir en una situaci on concreta, y ii) las normas como
ordenes o prohibiciones respaldadas por un sistema de sanciones, por lo que
las normas son medios para prevenir o castigar ciertas acciones. En el area
de los SMA, las normas se vienen utilizando como una especi caci on formal
de lo que est a permitido, obligado y prohibido dentro de una sociedad. De
este modo, las normas permiten regular la vida de los agentes software y las
interacciones entre ellos.
La motivaci on principal de esta tesis es permitir a los dise~nadores de los
SMA utilizar normas como un mecanismo para controlar y coordinar SMA
abiertos. Nuestro objetivo es elaborar mecanismos normativos a dos niveles:
a nivel de agente y a nivel de infraestructura. Por lo tanto, en esta tesis se
aborda primero el problema de la de nici on de agentes normativos aut onomos
que sean capaces de deliberar acercaCriado Pacheco, N. (2012). Using Norms To Control Open Multi-Agent Systems [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/17800Palanci
Computational Theory of Mind for Human-Agent Coordination
In everyday life, people often depend on their theory of mind, i.e., their ability to reason about unobservable mental content of others to understand, explain, and predict their behaviour. Many agent-based models have been designed to develop computational theory of mind and analyze its effectiveness in various tasks and settings. However, most existing models are not generic (e.g., only applied in a given setting), not feasible (e.g., require too much information to be processed), or not human-inspired (e.g., do not capture the behavioral heuristics of humans). This hinders their applicability in many settings. Accordingly, we propose a new computational theory of mind, which captures the human decision heuristics of reasoning by abstracting individual beliefs about others. We specifically study computational affinity and show how it can be used in tandem with theory of mind reasoning when designing agent models for human-agent negotiation. We perform two-agent simulations to analyze the role of affinity in getting to agreements when there is a bound on the time to be spent for negotiating. Our results suggest that modeling affinity can ease the negotiation process by decreasing the number of rounds needed for an agreement as well as yield a higher benefit for agents with theory of mind reasoning.</p
A Bayesian approach to norm identification
F. Meneguzzi thanks Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient´ıfico e Tecnologico (CNPq) through the Universal Grant (Grant ´ref. 482156/2013-9) and PQ fellowship (Grant ref. 306864/2013-4).Publisher PD
Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes with Behavioral Norms
This extended abstract discusses various approaches to the constraining of Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) using social norms and logical assertions in a dynamic logic framework. Whereas the exploitation of synergies among formal logic on the one hand and stochastic approaches and machine learning on the other is gaining significantly increasing interest since several years, most of the respective approaches fall into the category of relational learning in the widest sense, including inductive (stochastic) logic programming. In contrast, the use of formal knowledge (including knowledge about social norms) for the provision of hard constraints and prior knowledge for some stochastic learning or modeling task is much less frequently approached. Although we do not propose directly implementable technical solutions, it is hoped that this work is a useful contribution to a discussion about the usefulness and feasibility of approaches from norm research and formal logic in the context of stochastic behavioral models, and vice versa
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