53,643 research outputs found
Mechanisms for Automated Negotiation in State Oriented Domains
This paper lays part of the groundwork for a domain theory of negotiation,
that is, a way of classifying interactions so that it is clear, given a domain,
which negotiation mechanisms and strategies are appropriate. We define State
Oriented Domains, a general category of interaction. Necessary and sufficient
conditions for cooperation are outlined. We use the notion of worth in an
altered definition of utility, thus enabling agreements in a wider class of
joint-goal reachable situations. An approach is offered for conflict
resolution, and it is shown that even in a conflict situation, partial
cooperative steps can be taken by interacting agents (that is, agents in
fundamental conflict might still agree to cooperate up to a certain point). A
Unified Negotiation Protocol (UNP) is developed that can be used in all types
of encounters. It is shown that in certain borderline cooperative situations, a
partial cooperative agreement (i.e., one that does not achieve all agents'
goals) might be preferred by all agents, even though there exists a rational
agreement that would achieve all their goals. Finally, we analyze cases where
agents have incomplete information on the goals and worth of other agents.
First we consider the case where agents' goals are private information, and we
analyze what goal declaration strategies the agents might adopt to increase
their utility. Then, we consider the situation where the agents' goals (and
therefore stand-alone costs) are common knowledge, but the worth they attach to
their goals is private information. We introduce two mechanisms, one 'strict',
the other 'tolerant', and analyze their affects on the stability and efficiency
of negotiation outcomes.Comment: See http://www.jair.org/ for any accompanying file
Human-Agent Decision-making: Combining Theory and Practice
Extensive work has been conducted both in game theory and logic to model
strategic interaction. An important question is whether we can use these
theories to design agents for interacting with people? On the one hand, they
provide a formal design specification for agent strategies. On the other hand,
people do not necessarily adhere to playing in accordance with these
strategies, and their behavior is affected by a multitude of social and
psychological factors. In this paper we will consider the question of whether
strategies implied by theories of strategic behavior can be used by automated
agents that interact proficiently with people. We will focus on automated
agents that we built that need to interact with people in two negotiation
settings: bargaining and deliberation. For bargaining we will study game-theory
based equilibrium agents and for argumentation we will discuss logic-based
argumentation theory. We will also consider security games and persuasion games
and will discuss the benefits of using equilibrium based agents.Comment: In Proceedings TARK 2015, arXiv:1606.0729
An Evolutionary Learning Approach for Adaptive Negotiation Agents
Developing effective and efficient negotiation mechanisms for real-world applications such as e-Business is challenging since negotiations in such a context are characterised by combinatorially complex negotiation spaces, tough deadlines, very limited information about the opponents, and volatile negotiator preferences. Accordingly, practical negotiation systems should be empowered by effective learning mechanisms to acquire dynamic domain knowledge from the possibly changing negotiation contexts. This paper illustrates our adaptive negotiation agents which are underpinned by robust evolutionary learning mechanisms to deal with complex and dynamic negotiation contexts. Our experimental results show that GA-based adaptive negotiation agents outperform a theoretically optimal negotiation mechanism which guarantees Pareto optimal. Our research work opens the door to the development of practical negotiation systems for real-world applications
The first automated negotiating agents competition (ANAC 2010)
Motivated by the challenges of bilateral negotiations between people and automated agents we organized the first automated negotiating agents competition (ANAC 2010). The purpose of the competition is to facilitate the research in the area bilateral multi-issue closed negotiation. The competition was based on the Genius environment, which is a General Environment for Negotiation with Intelligent multi-purpose Usage Simulation. The first competition was held in conjunction with the Ninth International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS-10) and was comprised of seven teams. This paper presents an overview of the competition, as well as general and contrasting approaches towards negotiation strategies that were adopted by the participants of the competition. Based on analysis in post--tournament experiments, the paper also attempts to provide some insights with regard to effective approaches towards the design of negotiation strategies
Agent-Based Participatory Simulations: Merging Multi-Agent Systems and Role-Playing Games
In 2001, Olivier Barreteau proposed to jointly use multi-agent systems and role-playing games for purposes of research, training and negotiation support in the field of renewable resource management. This joint use was later labeled the "MAS/RPG methodology" and this approach is one of the foundation stones of the ComMod movement. In this article, we present an alternative method called "agent-based participatory simulations". These simulations are multi-agent systems where human participants control some of the agents. The experiments we conducted prove that it is possible to successfully merge multi-agent systems and role-playing games. We argue that agent-based participatory simulations are also a significant improvement over the MAS/RPG approach, opening new perspectives and solving some of the problems generated by the joint use of role-playing games and multi-agent systems. The advantages are at least threefold. Because all interactions are computer mediated, they can be recorded and this record can be processed and used to improve the understanding of participants and organizers alike. Because of the merge, agent-based participatory simulations decrease the distance between the agent-based model and the behavior of participants. Agent-based participatory simulations allow for computer-based improvements such as the introduction of eliciting assistant agents with learning capabilities.Agent-Based Participatory Simulations, Multi-Agent Systems, Role-Playing Games, Validation, Negotiation Support Tool
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
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