Case-Based Argumentation in Agent Societies

Hoy en día los sistemas informáticos complejos se pueden ven en términos de los servicios que ofrecen y las entidades que interactúan para proporcionar o consumir dichos servicios. Los sistemas multi-agente abiertos, donde los agentes pueden entrar o salir del sistema, interactuar y formar grupos (coaliciones de agentes u organizaciones) de forma dinámica para resolver problemas, han sido propuestos como una tecnología adecuada para implementar este nuevo paradigma informático. Sin embargo, el amplio dinamismo de estos sistemas requiere que los agentes tengan una forma de armonizar los conflictos que surgen cuando tienen que colaborar y coordinar sus actividades. En estas situaciones, los agentes necesitan un mecanismo para argumentar de forma eficiente (persuadir a otros agentes para que acepten sus puntos de vista, negociar los términos de un contrato, etc.) y poder llegar a acuerdos. La argumentación es un medio natural y efectivo para abordar los conflictos y contradicciones del conocimiento. Participando en diálogos argumentativos, los agentes pueden llegar a acuerdos con otros agentes. En un sistema multi-agente abierto, los agentes pueden formar sociedades que los vinculan a través de relaciones de dependencia. Estas relaciones pueden surgir de sus interacciones o estar predefinidas por el sistema. Además, los agentes pueden tener un conjunto de valores individuales o sociales, heredados de los grupos a los que pertenecen, que quieren promocionar. Las dependencias entre los agentes y los grupos a los que pertenecen y los valores individuales y sociales definen el contexto social del agente. Este contexto tiene una influencia decisiva en la forma en que un agente puede argumentar y llegar a acuerdos con otros agentes. Por tanto, el contexto social de los agentes debería tener una influencia decisiva en la representación computacional de sus argumentos y en el proceso de gestión de argumentos.Heras Barberá, SM. (2011). Case-Based Argumentation in Agent Societies [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/12497Palanci

HERRAMIENTAS INTELIGENTES PARA LA GESTIÓN DE PROYECTOS

[EN] The application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Project Management (PM) is a current research field with a growing demand from companies and organizations, interested in applying these technologies to get the most out of their data and expertise. Many organizations use software tools that allow automating the status of projects (situation analysis). These tools also provide predictions on the evolution of projects, using classic techniques such as Earned Value Management (EVM). However, the standard tools do not have many advanced functionalities, based on AI, which would allow to take much better advantage of the knowledge acquired by the organization. This fact is especially important in Risk Management (RM), which is one of the most complex aspects of PM. The objective of this work is to propose a methodology for research and development of tools based on AI technologies that allow organizations to analyze information from projects already developed (historical information) and to use it to improve RM in the planning of future projects.[ES] La aplicación de la Inteligencia Artificial (IA) en la Gestión de Proyectos (GP) es un campo de investigación actual y además existe una demanda creciente por parte de empresas y organizaciones para aplicar estas tecnologías. Muchas organizaciones utilizan herramientas de software que permiten automatizar el estado de los proyectos (análisis de situación). Estas herramientas también proporcionan predicciones sobre la evolución de los proyectos, utilizando técnicas clásicas como la Gestión del Valor Ganado (EVM). Sin embargo, estas herramientas, en general, no disponen de muchas funcionalidades avanzadas, basadas en la IA, que permitirían aprovechar mucho mejor los conocimientos adquiridos por la organización. Este hecho es especialmente importante en la Gestión de Riesgos (GR), que es uno de los aspectos más complejos de la GP. El objetivo de este trabajo es proponer una metodología para la investigación y el desarrollo de herramientas basadas en las tecnologías de la IA que permitan a las organizaciones analizar la información histórica de los proyectos ya ejecutados (información histórica) y utilizarla para poder mejorar la GR en la planificación de los proyectos futuros.Palomares Chust, A.; Heras, S.; Gil Pérez, A. (2020). Intelligent Project Management Tools. Asociación Española de Dirección e Ingeniería de Proyectos (AIEPRO). 1860-1870. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/177493S1860187

Bargaining agents based system for automatic classification of potential allergens in recipes

The automatic recipe recommendation which take into account the dietary restrictions of users (such as allergies or intolerances) is a complex and open problem. Some of the limitations of the problem is the lack of food databases correctly labeled with its potential allergens and non-unification of this information by companies in the food sector. In the absence of an appropriate solution, people affected by food restrictions cannot use recommender systems, because this recommend them inappropriate recipes. In order to resolve this situation, in this article we propose a solution based on a collaborative multi-agent system, using negotiation and machine learning techniques, is able to detect and label potential allergens in recipes. The proposed system is being employed in receteame.com, a recipe recommendation system which includes persuasive technologies, which are interactive technologies aimed at changing users’ attitudes or behaviors through persuasion and social influence, and social information to improve the recommendations

Persuasion and Recommendation System Applied to a Cognitive Assistant

In this paper, we present a persuasive recommendation module included in the iGenda framework. iGenda is a cognitive assistant that helps care-receivers and caregivers in the management of their activities of daily living, by resolving scheduling conflicts and promoting active aging activities. The proposed new module will allow the system to select and recommend to the users an event that potentially best suits to his/her interests (likes or medical condition). The multi-agent approach followed by the iGenda framework facilitates an easy integration of these new features. The social objective is to promote social activities and engaging the users in physical or psychological activities that improve their medical condition

An Ontological-based Knowledge-Representation Formalism for Case-Based Argumentation

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10796-014-9524-3[EN] In open multi-agent systems, agents can enter or leave the system, interact, form societies, and have dependency relations with each other. In these systems, when agents have to collaborate or coordinate their activities to achieve their objectives, their different interests and preferences can come into conflict. Argumentation is a powerful technique to harmonise these conflicts. However, in many situations the social context of agents determines the way in which agents can argue to reach agreements. In this paper, we advance research in the computational representation of argumentation frameworks by proposing a new ontologicalbased, knowledge-representation formalism for the design of open MAS in which the participating software agents are able to manage and exchange arguments with each other taking into account the agents’ social context. This formalism is the core of a case-based argumentation framework for agent societies. In addition, we present an example of the performance of the formalism in a real domain that manages the requests received by the technicians of a call centre.This work is supported by the Spanish government grants [CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 CSD2007-00022, TIN2011-27652-C03-01, and TIN2012-36586-C03-01] and by the GVA project [PROMETEO II/2013/019].Heras Barberá, SM.; Botti, V.; Julian Inglada, VJ. (2014). An Ontological-based Knowledge-Representation Formalism for Case-Based Argumentation. Information Systems Frontiers. 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-014-9524-3S120Amgoud, L. (2005). An argumentation-based model for reasoning about coalition structures. In 2nd international workshop on argumentation in multi-agent systems, argmas-05(pp. 1–12). Springer.Amgoud, L., Dimopolous, Y., Moraitis, P. (2007). A unified and general framework for argumentation-based negotiation. In 6th international joint conference on autonomous agents and multiagent systems, AAMAS-07. IFAAMAS.Atkinson, K., & Bench-Capon, T. (2008). Abstract argumentation scheme frameworks. In Proceedings of the 13th international conference on artificial intelligence: methodology, systems and applications, AIMSA-08, lecture notes in artificial intelligence (Vol. 5253, pp. 220–234). Springer.Aulinas, M., Tolchinsky, P., Turon, C., Poch, M., Cortés, U. (2012). Argumentation-based framework for industrial wastewater discharges management. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 25(2), 317–325.Bench-Capon, T., & Atkinson, K. (2009). Argumentation in artificial intelligence, chap. abstract argumentation and values (pp. 45–64). Springer.Bench-Capon, T., & Sartor, G. (2003). A model of legal reasoning with cases incorporating theories and values. Artificial Intelligence, 150(1-2), 97–143.Bulling, N., Dix, J., Chesñevar, C.I. (2008). Modelling coalitions: ATL + argumentation. In Proceedings of the 7th international joint conference on autonomous agents and multiagent systems, AAMAS-08 (Vol. 2, pp. 681–688). ACM Press.Chesñevar, C., McGinnis, J., Modgil, S., Rahwan, I., Reed, C., Simari, G., South, M., Vreeswijk, G., Willmott, S. (2006). Towards an argument interchange format. The Knowledge Engineering Review, 21(4), 293–316.Diaz-Agudo, B., & Gonzalez-Calero, P.A. (2007). Ontologies: A handbook of principles, concepts and applications in information systems, integrated series in information systems, chap. an ontological approach to develop knowledge intensive cbr systems (Vol. 14, pp. 173–214). Springer.Dung, P.M. (1995). On the acceptability of arguments and its fundamental role in nonmonotonic reasoning, logic programming, and N -person games. Artificial Intelligence, 77, 321–357.Ferber, J., Gutknecht, O., Michel, F. (2004). From agents to organizations: An organizational view of multi-agent systems. In Agent-oriented software engineering VI, LNCS (Vol. 2935, pp. 214–230.) Springer-Verlag.Hadidi, N., Dimopolous, Y., Moraitis, P. (2010). Argumentative alternating offers. In 9th international conference on autonomous agents and multiagent systems, AAMAS-10 (pp. 441–448). IFAAMAS.Heras, S., Atkinson, K., Botti, V., Grasso, F., Julián, V., McBurney, P. (2010). How argumentation can enhance dialogues in social networks. In Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on computational models of argument, COMMA-10, frontiers in artificial intelligence and applications (Vol. 216, pp. 267–274). IOS Press.Heras, S., Botti, V., Julián, V. (2011). On a computational argumentation framework for agent societies. In Argumentation in multi-agent systems (pp. 123–140). Springer.Heras, S., Botti, V., Julián, V. (2012). Argument-based agreements in agent societies. Neurocomputing, 75(1), 156–162.Heras, S., Jordán, J., Botti, V., Julián, V. (2013). Argue to agree: A case-based argumentation approach. International Journal of Approximate Reasoning, 54(1), 82–108.Jordán, J., Heras, S., Julián, V. (2011). A customer support application using argumentation in multi-agent systems. In 14th international conference on information fusion (FUSION-11) (pp. 772– 778).Karunatillake, N.C. (2006). Argumentation-based negotiation in a social context. Ph.D. thesis, School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, UK.Karunatillake, N.C., Jennings, N.R., Rahwan, I., McBurney, P. (2009). Dialogue games that agents play within a society. Artificial Intelligence, 173(9-10), 935–981.Kraus, S., Sycara, K., Evenchik, A. (1998). Reaching agreements through argumentation: a logical model and implementation. Artificial Intelligence, 104, 1–69.López de Mántaras, R., McSherry, D., Bridge, D., Leake, D., Smyth, B., Craw, S., Faltings, B., Maher, M.L., Cox, M., Forbus, K., Keane, M., Watson, I. (2006). Retrieval, reuse, revision, and retention in CBR. The Knowledge Engineering Review, 20(3), 215–240.Luck, M., & McBurney, P. (2008). Computing as interaction: Agent and agreement technologies. In IEEE international conference on distributed human-machine systems. IEEE Press.Oliva, E., McBurney, P., Omicini, A. (2008). Co-argumentation artifact for agent societies. In 5th international workshop on argumentation in multi-agent systems, Argmas-08 (pp. 31–46). Springer.Ontañón, S., & Plaza, E. (2007). Learning and joint deliberation through argumentation in multi-agent systems. In 7th international conference on agents and multi-agent systems, AAMAS-07. ACM Press.Ontañón, S., & Plaza, E. (2009). Argumentation-based information exchange in prediction markets. In Argumentation in multi-agent systems, LNAI (vol. 5384, pp. 181–196). Springer.Parsons, S., Sierra, C., Jennings, N.R. (1998). Agents that reason and negotiate by arguing. Journal of Logic and Computation, 8(3), 261–292.Prakken, H. (2010). An abstract framework for argumentation with structured arguments. Argument and Computation, 1, 93–124.Prakken, H., Reed, C., Walton, D. (2005). Dialogues about the burden of proof. In Proceedings of the 10th international conference on artificial intelligence and law, ICAIL-05 (pp. 115–124). ACM Press.Sierra, C., Botti, V., Ossowski, S. (2011). Agreement computing. KI - Künstliche Intelligenz 10.1007/s13218-010-0070-y .Soh, L.K., & Tsatsoulis, C. (2005). A real-time negotiation model and a multi-agent sensor network implementation. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 11(3), 215–271.Walton, D., Reed, C., Macagno, F. (2008). Argumentation schemes. Cambridge University Press.Wardeh, M., Bench-Capon, T., Coenen, F.P. (2008). PISA - pooling information from several agents: Multiplayer argumentation from experience. In Proceedings of the 28th SGAI international conference on artificial intelligence, AI-2008 (pp. 133–146). Springer.Wardeh, M., Bench-Capon, T., Coenen, F.P. (2009). PADUA: A protocol for argumentation dialogue using association rules. AI and Law, 17(3), 183–215.Wardeh, M., Coenen, F., Bench-Capon, T. (2010). Arguing in groups. In 3rd international conference on computational models of argument, COMMA-10 (pp. 475–486). IOS Press.Willmott, S., Vreeswijk, G., Chesñevar, C., South, M., McGinnis, J., Modgil, S., Rahwan, I., Reed, C., Simari, G. (2006). Towards an argument interchange format for multi-agent systems. In 3rd international workshop on argumentation in multi-agent systems, ArgMAS-06 (pp. 17–34). Springer.Wyner, A., & Schneider, J. (2012). Arguing from a point of view. In Proceedings of the first international conference on agreement technologies

Argumentation Schemes for Events Suggestion in an e-Health Platform

In this work, we propose the introduction of persuasion techniques that guide the users into interacting with the Ambient Assisted Living framework iGenda. It is a cognitive assistant that manages active daily living activities, monitors user's health condition, and creates a social network between users via mobile devices. The objective is to be inserted in a healthcare environment and to provide features like adaptive interfaces, user profiling and machine learning processes that enhance the usage experience. The inclusion of a persuasive architecture (based on argumentation schemes) enables the system to provide recommendations to the users that fit their profile and interests, thus increases the chance of a positive interaction.A. Costa thanks the Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT) the Post-Doc scholarship with the Ref. SFRH/BPD/102696/2014. This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013. It was also supported by the by the projects TIN2015-65515-C4-1-R and TIN2014-55206-R of the Spanish government and by the grant program for the recruitment of doctors for the Spanish system of science and technology (PAID-10-14) of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Towards real-time agreements

In this paper, we deal with the problem of real-time coordination with the more general approach of reaching real-time agreements in MAS. Concretely, this work proposes a real-time argumentation framework in an attempt to provide agents with the ability of engaging in argumentative dialogues and come with a solution for their underlying agreement process within a bounded period of time. The framework has been implemented and evaluated in the domain of a customer support application. Concretely, we consider a society of agents that act on behalf of a group of technicians that must solve problems in a Technology Management Centre (TMC) within a bounded time. This centre controls every process implicated in the provision of technological and customer support services to private or public organisations by means of a call centre. The contract signed between the TCM and the customer establishes penalties if the specified time is exceeded. 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.This work is supported by the Spanish Government grants TIN2009-13839-C03-01 [CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 CSD2007-00022, and TIN2012-36586-C03-01] and by the GVA project [PRO-METEO 2008/051].Navarro Llácer, M.; Heras Barberá, SM.; Botti Navarro, VJ.; Julian Inglada, VJ. (2013). Towards real-time agreements. Expert Systems with Applications. 40(10):3906-3917. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2012.12.087S39063917401

Case-Based Argumentation Framework. Reasoning Process

The capability of reaching agreements is a necessary feature that large computer systems where agents interoperate must include. In these systems, agents represent self-motivated entities that have a social context, including dependency relations among them, and different preferences and beliefs. Without agreement there is no cooperation and thus, complex tasks which require the interaction of agents with different points of view cannot be performed. In this work, we follow a case-based argumentation approach for the design and implementation of Multi-Agent Systems where agents reach agreements by arguing and improve their argumentation skills from experience. A set of knowledge resources and a reasoning process that agents can use to manage their positions and arguments are presented.Heras Barberá, SM.; Botti Navarro, VJ.; Julian Inglada, VJ. (2011). Case-Based Argumentation Framework. Reasoning Process. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/1109

A Computational Argumentation Framework for Agent Societies

Starting from the idea that the social context of agents determines the way in which agents can argue and reach agreements, this context should have a decisive influence in the computational representation of arguments. In this report, we advance research in the area of computational frameworks for agent argumentation by proposing a new argumentation framework (AF) for the design of open MAS in which the participating software agents are able to manage and exchange arguments between themselves taking into account the agents¿ social context. In order to do this, we have analysed the necessary requirements for this type of framework 1 and taken into account them in the design of our framework. Also, the knowledge resources that the agents can use to manage arguments in this framework are presented in this work. In addition, if heterogeneous agents can interact in the framework, they need a common language to represent arguments and argumentation processes. To cope with this, we have also designed an argumentation ontology to represent arguments and argumentation concepts in our framework.Heras Barberá, SM.; Botti Navarro, VJ.; Julian Inglada, VJ. (2011). A Computational Argumentation Framework for Agent Societies. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/1103

Case-Based Argumentation Framework. Dialogue Protocol

On top of the simpler ability to interact, open MAS must include mechanisms for their agents to reach agreements by taking into account their social context. Argumentation provides MAS with a framework that assures a rational communication, which allows agents to reach agreements when conflicts of opinion arise. In this report we present the communication protocol that agents of a case-based argumentation framework use to interact when they engage in argumentation dialogues. The syntax and semantics of the framework are formalised and discussed.Heras Barberá, SM.; Botti Navarro, VJ.; Julian Inglada, VJ. (2011). Case-Based Argumentation Framework. Dialogue Protocol. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/1109