The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Architecting for reuse: A software framework for automated negotiation

Architecting for reuse: A software framework for automated negotiation
Architecting for reuse: A software framework for automated negotiation
If agents are to negotiate automatically with one another they must share a negotiation mechanism, specifying what possible actions each party can take at any given time, when negotiation terminates and what the resulting agreements could be. The current state-of-the-art represents this as a negotiation protocol specifying the flow of messages. However, they omit other aspects of the rules of negotiation (such as obliging a participant to improve on a previous offer), requiring these to be represented implicitly in an agent's design, potentially resulting in compatibility, maintenance and re-usability problems. In this paper we propose an alternative approach, allowing all of the mechanism to be formal and explicit. We present (i) A taxonomy of declarative rules which can be used to capture a wide variety of negotiation mechanisms in a principled and well-structured way. (ii) A simple interaction protocol, which is able to support any mechanism which can be captured using the declarative rules. (iii) A software framework for negotiation, implemented in JADE [2] that allows agents to effectively participate in negotiations defined using our rule taxonomy and protocol.
87-98
Bartolini, C.
3dbe193e-e82f-4534-a692-7f2057dd7aa5
Preist, C.
b92a7f90-78aa-4550-b732-f7c05e2e0023
Jennings, N. R.
ab3d94cc-247c-4545-9d1e-65873d6cdb30
Bartolini, C.
3dbe193e-e82f-4534-a692-7f2057dd7aa5
Preist, C.
b92a7f90-78aa-4550-b732-f7c05e2e0023
Jennings, N. R.
ab3d94cc-247c-4545-9d1e-65873d6cdb30

Bartolini, C., Preist, C. and Jennings, N. R. (2002) Architecting for reuse: A software framework for automated negotiation. 3rd Int Workshop on Agent-Oriented Software Engineering, Bologna, Italy. pp. 87-98 .

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

If agents are to negotiate automatically with one another they must share a negotiation mechanism, specifying what possible actions each party can take at any given time, when negotiation terminates and what the resulting agreements could be. The current state-of-the-art represents this as a negotiation protocol specifying the flow of messages. However, they omit other aspects of the rules of negotiation (such as obliging a participant to improve on a previous offer), requiring these to be represented implicitly in an agent's design, potentially resulting in compatibility, maintenance and re-usability problems. In this paper we propose an alternative approach, allowing all of the mechanism to be formal and explicit. We present (i) A taxonomy of declarative rules which can be used to capture a wide variety of negotiation mechanisms in a principled and well-structured way. (ii) A simple interaction protocol, which is able to support any mechanism which can be captured using the declarative rules. (iii) A software framework for negotiation, implemented in JADE [2] that allows agents to effectively participate in negotiations defined using our rule taxonomy and protocol.

Text
aose-02-bartolini.pdf - Other
Download (149kB)

More information

Published date: 2002
Additional Information: Event Dates: 2002
Venue - Dates: 3rd Int Workshop on Agent-Oriented Software Engineering, Bologna, Italy, 2002-01-01
Organisations: Agents, Interactions & Complexity

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 256864
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/256864
PURE UUID: a254a64d-7948-45ae-a1ad-de2089bc7b90

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 13 Jun 2003
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 05:49

Export record

Contributors

Author: C. Bartolini
Author: C. Preist
Author: N. R. Jennings

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×