Formalising Collaborative Decision Making and Practical Reasoning in Multi-Agent Systems
OA Location
Author(s)
Panzarasa, P
Jennings, NR
Norman, TJ
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
In this paper, we present an abstract formal model of decision-making in a social setting that covers all aspects of the process, from recognition of a potential for cooperation through to joint decision. In a multi-agent environment, where self-motivated autonomous agents try to persue their own goals, a joint decision cannot be taken for granted. In order to decide effectively, agents need the ability to (a) represent and maintain a model of their own mental attitudes, (b) reason about other agents’ mental states. Social mental shaping is advocated as a general mechanism for attempting to have an impact on agents’ mental states in order to increase their cooperativeness towards a joint decision. Our approach is to specify a novel, high-level architecture for collaborative decision-making in which the mentalistic notions of belief, desire, goal, intention, preference and commitment play a central role in guiding the individual agent’s and the group’s decision-making behaviour. We identify preconditions that must be fulfilled before collaborative decision-making can commence and prescribe how cooperating agents should behave, in terms of their own decision-making apparatus and their interactions with others, when the decision-making process is progressing satisfactorily. The model is formalized through a new, many-sorted, multi-modal logic.
Date Issued
2002
Citation
Journal of Logic and Computation, 2002, 12, pp.55-117
Start Page
55
End Page
117
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Logic and Computation
Volume
12
Identifier
http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/253745/
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Computer Science, Theory & Methods
Logic
Computer Science
Science & Technology - Other Topics
COMPUTER SCIENCE, THEORY & METHODS
LOGIC
multi-agent systems
BDI logic
joint mental attitudes
inter-agent social behaviour
AGENTS
TEAMWORK
Computation Theory & Mathematics
01 Mathematical Sciences
08 Information And Computing Sciences
22 Philosophy And Religious Studies
Article Number
1