A Structured Environment to Facilitate Agreements
Eugénio Oliveira · 2012
Abstract. Multi-Agent Systems are good candidates to solve so-called DDD problems by making agents to get into joint agreements. A relevant component of a MAS is the Environment seen as an active medium to reach agreements or mutual contracts. In ANTE, besides being a facilitator, the Environment is also seen as a regulator as well as exploited as the social medium playing an active role in influencing agents behavior. 1 Problem Characterization Many sophisticated problems we usually address belong to the so called DDD class of problems [1]. They deal with a reality that simultaneously is of a Distributed, Decentralized as well as Dynamic nature. MAS is a natural paradigm to cope with those situations asking for distributed problem solving as well as capabilities for reaching joint agreements. However, due to the intrinsic agents’ property of Autonomy, the following questions arise: How can an agent select, in runtime, its best partners for jointly execute the tasks ahead, and why should the agent trust those selected agents? And, for the same purpose, how to coordinate