Conflicting Agents

by Tessier, Catherine; Chaudron, Laurent; Muller, Heinz Jurgen

• ISBN13: 9780792372103
• ISBN10: 0792372107
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-10-01
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Pub

Summary

Conflicts between agents acting in a multi-agent environment arise for different reasons, involve different concepts, and are dealt with in different ways, depending on the kind of agents and on the domain where they are considered. Agents may have conflicting beliefs, conflicting goals, or may have to share limited resources. Consequently, conflicts may be expressed as mere differences, or as contradictions, or even as social conflicts. They may be avoided, solved, kept, or even created deliberately. Conflicting Agents studies conflicts in the context of multi-agent systems, i.e. artificial societies modeled on the basis of autonomous, interacting agents. This book addresses questions about types of conflicts, conflict definitions and the use of conflicts as trigger functions for activities in multi-agent systems. The book is also dedicated to questions of conflict management, resolution and avoidance, i.e. the question of how agents cope with conflicts and conflicting situations.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Contributing Authors	xiii
Agents' conflicts: new issues	1	(32)
Catherine Tessier Heinz-Jurgen Muller Humbert Fiorino Laurent Chaudron
Introduction	2	(4)
About conflicts in general	6	(7)
Two classes of conflicts	13	(2)
Towards a unified definition of conflict?	15	(1)
Conflict handling	16	(12)
Overview of the book	28	(5)
Part I Conflicts and agents: essentials
Conflicts within and for collaboration	33	(30)
Cristiano Castelfranchi
Rino Falcone
Introduction	33	(2)
A plan-based theory of delegation/adoptin	35	(3)
Types and levels of delegation and related conflicts	38	(4)
Levels of control and relative conflicts	42	(4)
Adoption and conflict	46	(8)
Delegation roles and conflicts	54	(2)
Tutorial and paternalistic conflicts	56	(1)
Functional violations of norms and commitments	57	(4)
Conclusions	61	(2)
Their problems are my problems	63	(48)
Markus Hannebauer
Introduction	63	(2)
Internal Conflicts	65	(9)
External Conflicts	74	(10)
Autonomous Dynamic Reconfiguration	84	(10)
Related Work	94	(3)
Conclusions	97	(14)
Appendix	99	(12)
Conflicts in social theory and MAS	111	(42)
Thomas Malsch Gerhard Weiss
Introduction	111	(4)
Different reasons for studying conflicts	115	(4)
Conflicts in the sociology of autopoietic social systems	119	(7)
Conflict in pragmatist sociology	126	(10)
Conflict and social change	136	(8)
Conclusion	144	(9)
Part II Conflicts of operational agents
Conflicts in agent teams	153	(16)
Hyuckchul Jung
Milind Tambe
Introduction	153	(1)
Domains and motivations	154	(2)
Teamwork model	156	(1)
Argument representation and evaluation	157	(2)
CONSA approach	159	(5)
Detailed example of implementation	164	(2)
Related work	166	(1)
Summary and future work	167	(2)
Conflict-based behaviour emergence in robot teams	169	(34)
Jacques Penders
Introduction	169	(3)
Team behaviour	172	(9)
Interaction: collisions and conflicts	181	(9)
Avoiding robots	190	(11)
Conclusion	201	(2)
Conflicts in collective robotics	203	(20)
Fabrice Chantemargue
Conflict in Artificial Intelligence and Distributed Artificial Intelligence	204	(1)
Autonomous agents: basic concepts	205	(1)
Our view on emergence	206	(2)
An experimental multi-agent testbed	208	(3)
Results	211	(8)
Conclusion	219	(4)
Part III Application centered agents' conflicts
Strategic use of conflicts in tutoring systems	223	(28)
Esma Aimeur
Introduction	223	(2)
Evolution of learning strategies in intelligent tutoring systems	225	(2)
Notions of conflicts	227	(5)
Cooperation and conflicts in ITS	232	(3)
Conflicts management	235	(9)
Experimentation	244	(1)
Results and discussion	245	(4)
Conclusion and perspectives	249	(2)
Conflict handling in collaborative search	251	(28)
Jorg Denzinger
Introduction	251	(2)
Search and multi-agent search	253	(5)
Multi-Agent Search based on Improving on the Competition Approach	258	(5)
Multi-Agent Search based on using a Common Search State	263	(6)
Multi-Agent Search based on Dividing the Problem into Subproblems	269	(7)
Conclusion	276	(3)
Conflict as a heuristic in the development of an interaction mechanics	279	(24)
William F. Lawless T. Castelao C.P. Abubucker
Introduction: traditional views of reality, R and convergence	280	(4)
Bistability	284	(3)
Solving ill-defined problems	287	(1)
Environmental remediation	288	(4)
The transition to interaction mechanics	292	(5)
Macro economics	297	(2)
Path forward	299	(1)
Conclusion	300	(3)
References	303	(30)
Index	333