A QUOTA-BASED MULTI-AGENT NEGOTIATION PROTOCOL FOR COMPLEX CONTRACTS

Fabian Lang, Andreas Fink

2012

Abstract

Automated negotiation is regarded as an essential method for the coordination of software agents. However, without adequate protocols, negotiations are susceptible to malicious and strategic behavior of the agents – especially when interdependencies of contract items lead to complex contract spaces. In this study, we propose a mediator-based protocol employing acceptance quotas to ensure cooperative behavior in inter-organizational systems. Furthermore, we evaluate three potential extensions to the basic protocol. We have conducted simulation experiments for evaluation which show that the proposed protocol can ensure an effective welfare performance and that the proposed extensions can result in a further improvement of the basic protocol.

References

  1. Binmore, K. and Vulkan, N. (1999). Applying game theory to automated negotiation. Netnomics, 1(1):1-9.
  2. Conitzer, V. (2010). Making decisions based on the preferences of multiple agents. Communications of the ACM, 53(3):84-94.
  3. Conitzer, V. and Sandholm, T. (2004). Self-interested automated mechanism design and implications for optimal combinatorial auctions. Proceedings of the 5th ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce (EC 04).
  4. Fink, A. (2006). Supply chain coordination by means of automated negotiations between autonomous agents. In Chaib-draa, B. and Müller, J., editors, Multiagent based Supply Chain Management (Studies in Computational Intelligence, Vol. 28), pages 351-372. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany.
  5. Fujita, K., Ito, T., and Klein, M. (2010). Secure and efficient protocols for multiple interdependent issues negotiation. Journal of Intelligent and Fuzzy Systems, 21(3):175-185.
  6. Hattori, H., Klein, M., and Ito, T. (2007). Using iterative narrowing to enable multi-party negotiations with multiple interdependent issues. In Proceedings of the Sixth International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS 07), pages 1043-1045.
  7. Homberger, J. (2009). A (µ, l)-coordination mechanism for agent-based multi-project scheduling. OR Spectrum. doi: 10.1007/s00291-009-0178-3.
  8. Jennings, N. R. (2000). On agent-based software engineering. Artificial Intelligence, 117(2):277-296.
  9. Jennings, N. R., Faratin, P., Lomuscio, A. R., Parsons, S., Sierra, C., and Wooldridge, M. (2001). Automated negotiation: Prospects, methods and challenges. Group Decision and Negotiation, 10(2):199-215.
  10. Klein, M., Faratin, P., Sayama, H., and Bar-Yam, Y. (2003). Negotiating complex contracts. Group Decision and Negotiation, 12(2):111-125.
  11. Kraus, S. (1997). Negotiation and cooperation in multiagent environments. Artificial Intelligence, 94(1):79- 97.
  12. Kraus, S. (2001). Automated negotiation and decision making in multiagent environments. In Luck, M., Marik, V., Stepankova, O., and Trappl, R., editors, Multiagents Systems and Applications, Vol. 104, pages 150-172. Springer, New York, NY, USA.
  13. Lai, G., Li, C., and Sycara, K. (2006). Efficient multiattribute negotiation with incomplete information. Group Decision and Negotiation, 15(5):511-528.
  14. Lai, G., Li, C., Sycara, K., and Giampapa, J. (2004). Literature review on multi-attribute negotiations. Technical Report, CMU-RI-TR-04-66. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
  15. Maskin, E. S. (2008). Mechanism design: how to implement social goals. American Economic Review, 98(3):567-576.
  16. May, K. (1952). A set of independent necessary and sufficient conditions for simple majority decision. Econometrica, 20(4):680-684.
  17. Nash, J. F. (1950). The bargaining problem. Econometrica, 18(2):155-162.
  18. Rosenschein, J. S. and Zlotkin, G. (1994). Designing conventions for automated negotiation. AI Magazine, 15(3):29-46.
  19. Rubinstein, A. (1982). Perfect equilibrium in a bargaining model. Econometrica, 50(1):97-110.
Download


Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

Lang F. and Fink A. (2012). A QUOTA-BASED MULTI-AGENT NEGOTIATION PROTOCOL FOR COMPLEX CONTRACTS . In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 2: ICAART, ISBN 978-989-8425-96-6, pages 113-118. DOI: 10.5220/0003717501130118


in Bibtex Style

@conference{icaart12,
author={Fabian Lang and Andreas Fink},
title={A QUOTA-BASED MULTI-AGENT NEGOTIATION PROTOCOL FOR COMPLEX CONTRACTS},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 2: ICAART,},
year={2012},
pages={113-118},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0003717501130118},
isbn={978-989-8425-96-6},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 2: ICAART,
TI - A QUOTA-BASED MULTI-AGENT NEGOTIATION PROTOCOL FOR COMPLEX CONTRACTS
SN - 978-989-8425-96-6
AU - Lang F.
AU - Fink A.
PY - 2012
SP - 113
EP - 118
DO - 10.5220/0003717501130118