Publication - Meta-Level Coordination for Solving Negotiation Chains in Semi-Cooperative Multi-Agent Systems

Authors: Zhang, Xiaoqin; Lesser, Victor
Title: Meta-Level Coordination for Solving Negotiation Chains in Semi-Cooperative Multi-Agent Systems
Abstract: A negotiation chain is formed when multiple related negotiations are spread over multiple agents. In order to appropriately order and structure the negotiations occurring in the chain to optimize the expected utility, we present an extension to a single-agent concurrent negotiation framework. This work is aimed at semi-cooperative multi-agent systems, where each agent has its own goals and works to maximize its local utility; however, the performance of each individual agent is tightly related to other agents` cooperation and the system`s overall performance. We introduce a pre-negotiation phase that allows agents to transfer meta-level information. Using this information, the agent can build a more accurate model of the negotiation in terms of modeling the relationship of flexibility and success probability. This more accurate model helps the agent in choosing a better negotiation solution in the global negotiation chain context. The agent can also use this information to allocate appropriate time for each negotiation, hence to find a good ordering of all related negotiations. The experimental data shows that these mechanisms improve the agents` and the system`s overall performance significantly.
Keywords: Negotiation
Publication: Proceedings of the Sixth International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, pp. 50 - 57
Location: Honolulu
Publisher: IFAAMAS
Date: May 2007
Sources: PDF: /Documents/XQZhang_AAMAS07.pdf
Reference: Zhang, Xiaoqin; Lesser, Victor. Meta-Level Coordination for Solving Negotiation Chains in Semi-Cooperative Multi-Agent Systems. Proceedings of the Sixth International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, IFAAMAS, pp. 50-57. May 2007.
bibtex: 
@inproceedings{Zhang-434,
  author    = "Xiaoqin Zhang and Victor Lesser",
  title     = "{Meta-Level Coordination for Solving Negotiation
               Chains in Semi-Cooperative Multi-Agent Systems}",
  booktitle = "Proceedings of the Sixth International Joint
               Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent
               Systems",
  publisher = "IFAAMAS",
  pages     = "50-57",
  month     = "May",
  year      = "2007",
  address   = "Honolulu",
  url       = "http://mas.cs.umass.edu/paper/434",
}