ScienceDirect® Home Skip Main Navigation Links
You have guest access to ScienceDirect. Find out more.
 
Home
Browse
My Settings
Alerts
Help
 Quick Search
 Search tips (Opens new window)
    Clear all fields    
Electronic Commerce Research and Applications
Volume 1, Issue 2, Summer 2002, Pages 193-207
 
Font Size: Decrease Font Size  Increase Font Size
 Abstract - selected
Article
Purchase PDF (476 K)

 
 
 
Related Articles in ScienceDirect
View More Related Articles
 
View Record in Scopus
 
doi:10.1016/S1567-4223(02)00016-9    How to Cite or Link Using DOI (Opens New Window)
Copyright © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

A formal approach to negotiating agents development

Marlon DumasCorresponding Author Contact Information, E-mail The Corresponding Author, a, Guido Governatorib, Arthur H. M. ter Hofstedea and Phillipa Oaksa

a Centre for Information Technology Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, GPO Box 2434, Brisbane, Queensland 4001, Australia b School of ITEE, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia

Available online 2 October 2002.

Purchase the full-text article



References and further reading may be available for this article. To view references and further reading you must purchase this article.

Abstract

This paper presents a formal and executable approach to capture the behaviour of parties involved in a negotiation. A party is modeled as a negotiating agent composed of a communication module, a control module, a reasoning module, and a knowledge base. The control module is expressed as a statechart, and the reasoning module as a defeasible logic program. A strategy specification therefore consists of a statechart, a set of defeasible rules, and a set of initial facts. Such a specification can be dynamically plugged into an agent shell incorporating a statechart interpreter and a defeasible logic inference engine, in order to yield an agent capable of participating in a given type of negotiations. The choice of statecharts and defeasible logic with respect to other formalisms is justified against a set of desirable criteria, and their suitability is illustrated through concrete examples of bidding and multi-lateral bargaining scenarios.

Author Keywords: Automated negotiation; Software agent; Defeasible logic; Statecharts

Article Outline

1. Introduction
2. Rationale, approach, and enabling formalisms
2.1. Desiderata
2.2. An architecture for negotiating agents
2.3. Expressing internal coordination: Statecharts
2.4. Expressing flexible decision-making: defeasible logic
2.5. Glueing the control and the reasoning modules
3. Case studies
3.1. An English auction bidding agent
3.2. Bargaining with multiple parties
4. Related work
5. Conclusion
References





 
Home
Browse
My Settings
Alerts
Help
Elsevier.com (Opens new window)
About ScienceDirect  |  Contact Us  |  Information for Advertisers  |  Terms & Conditions  |  Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. ScienceDirect® is a registered trademark of Elsevier B.V.