ProCLAIM: an argument-based model for deliberating over safety critical actions

In this Thesis we present an argument-based model – ProCLAIM – intended to provide a setting for heterogeneous agents to deliberate on whether a proposed action is safe. That is, whether or not a proposed action is expected to cause some undesirable side effect that will justify not to undertake the proposed action. This is particularly relevant in safetycritical environments where the consequences ensuing from an inappropriate action may be catastrophic. For the practical realisation of the deliberations the model features a mediator agent with three main tasks: 1) guide the participating agents in what their valid argumentation moves are at each stage of the deliberation; 2) decide whether submitted arguments should be accepted on the basis of their relevance; and finally, 3) evaluate the accepted arguments in order to provide an assessment on whether the proposed action should or should not be undertaken, where the argument evaluation is based on domain consented knowledge (e.g guidelines and regulations), evidence and the decision makers’ expertise. To motivate ProCLAIM’s practical value and generality the model is applied in two scenarios: human organ transplantation and industrial wastewater. In the former scenario, ProCLAIM is used to facilitate the deliberation between two medical doctors on whether an available organ for transplantation is or is not suitable for a particular potential recipient (i.e. whether it is safe to transplant the organ). In the later scenario, a number of agents deliberate on whether an industrial discharge is environmentally safe.En esta tesis se presenta un modelo basado en la Argumentación –ProCLAIM– cuyo n es proporcionar un entorno para la deliberación sobre acciones críticas para la seguridad entre agentes heterogéneos. En particular, el propósito de la deliberación es decidir si los efectos secundario indeseables de una acción justi can no llevarla a cabo. Esto es particularmente relevante en entornos críticos para la seguridad, donde las consecuencias que se derivan de una acción inadecuada puede ser catastró cas. Para la realización práctica de las deliberaciones propuestas, el modelo cuenta con un agente mediador con tres tareas principales: 1) guiar a los agentes participantes indicando cuales son las líneas argumentación válidas en cada etapa de la deliberación; 2) decidir si los argumentos presentados deben ser aceptadas sobre la base de su relevancia y, por último, 3) evaluar los argumentos aceptados con el n de proporcionar una valoración sobre la seguridad de la acción propuesta. Esta valoración se basa en guías y regulaciones del dominio de aplicación, en evidencia y en la opinión de los expertos responsables de la decisión. Para motivar el valor práctico y la generalidad de ProCLAIM, este modelo se aplica en dos escenarios distintos: el trasplante de órganos y la gestión de aguas residuales. En el primer escenario el modelo se utiliza para facilitar la deliberación entre dos médicos sobre la viabilidad del transplante de un órgano para un receptor potencial (es decir, si el transplante es seguro). En el segundo escenario varios agentes deliberan sobre si los efectos de un vertido industrial con el propósito de minimizar su impacto medioambiental

Deliberation Dialogues for Reasoning about Safety Critical Actions

In this paper we present the argument-based model ProCLAIM, intended to provide a setting for heterogeneous agents to deliberate over safety critical actions. To achieve this purpose ProCLAIM features a Mediator Agent with three main tasks: 1) guiding the participating agents in what their valid dialectical moves are at each stage of the dialogue; 2) deciding whether submitted arguments should be accepted on the basis of their relevance; and finally, 3) evaluating the accepted arguments in order to provide an assessment of whether the proposed action should or should not be undertaken. The main focus in this paper is the proposal of a set of reasoning patterns, represented in terms of argument schemes and critical questions, intended to automatise deliberations on whether a proposed action can safely be performed. We aim to motivate the importance of these schemes and critical questions for: a) the Mediator Agent’s guiding task that allows for a highly focused deliberation; b) the effective participation of heterogeneous agents; and c) enabling the reuse of previous similar deliberations in order to evaluate arguments on an evidential basis

Agents deliberating over action proposals using the ProCLAIM model

Abstract. In this paper we propose a dialogue game for agents to deliberate over a proposed action. The agents ’ dialogue moves are defined by a structured set of argument schemes and critical questions (CQs). Thus, a dialogue move is an instantiated scheme (i.e. an argument) or a CQ (i.e. a challenge on the argument instantiated in the scheme). The proposed dialogue game formalises the protocol based exchange of arguments defined in the ProCLAIM model. This model provides a setting for agents to deliberate over whether, given the arguments for and against, a proposed action is justified or not.