Multi-agent
negotiation: implementation of an alternating offers protocol
From the times of Leibniz and Babbage until the late 1950s, computation
was understood as calculation, or the manipulation of numbers.
Throughout the next decade (and still perhaps for many people),
computation came to be understood as information processing, or the
manipulation of data. With the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and
expert systems, the idea arose of computation as cognition, or the
manipulation of concepts. With the growth of the Internet and the World
Wide Web, a new metaphor is appropriate: computation as interaction, or
the joint manipulation of concepts and actions by discrete entities,
called software agents
Agent technology has been successfully used in a wide range of
industrial and commercial applications. To date, the demands for
systems composed of software agents that are owned by different
individuals or organizations and are capable of reaching agreements
through negotiation are becoming increasingly important and pervasive
(e.g., e-commerce and virtual enterprises).
The main goal of the dissertation is to implement an alternating offers
protocol. The protocol specifies the rules that govern the interaction
between the negotiating agents. Specifically, the protocol defines the
negotiation states (e.g., accepting proposals), the valid actions of
the agents in particular states (e.g., which messages can be sent by
whom, to whom, at what stage), and the events that cause negotiation
states to change (e.g., proposal accepted). In this way, the protocol
is an (high-level) interaction protocol and not a (low-level)
communication protocol.
Agents equipped with the protocol will be able to exchange offers and
counter-offers and to come to mutually beneficial agreements. An offer
is a vector of issue values (e.g. price=100, date=30). An issue is a
negotiation variable, i.e., a resource to be allocated or a
consideration to be resolved in negotiation (e.g., price).
The work could also involve a case study (e.g., a simplified energy
market or a multi-agent supply chain system) to illustrate
the
capabilities of negotiating agents.
In case of interest, the work could be done at LNEG (www.lneg.pt). The
institution could provide computer facilities and office. Also, a
dynamic and interdisciplinary team will provide any necessary help.
Furthermore, the team is working on funded FCT project:
PTDC/EEA-EEL/122988.
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