Constraint relaxation to reduce brittleness of distributed agent protocols

Incompatible goals among multiple agents working on domains involving finite constraints can be a source of conflict. This conflict, in the form of incompatible constraints established locally by the agents and imposed on the negotiated variables, may break the dialogue between these agents eve...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hassan, M.F., Robertson, D.
Format: Conference or Workshop Item
Language:English
Published: 2004
Subjects:
Online Access:http://scholars.utp.edu.my/id/eprint/1920/
http://scholars.utp.edu.my/id/eprint/1920/1/Constraint_relaxation1.pdf
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Summary:Incompatible goals among multiple agents working on domains involving finite constraints can be a source of conflict. This conflict, in the form of incompatible constraints established locally by the agents and imposed on the negotiated variables, may break the dialogue between these agents even though they could, in principle, reach an agreement. A common means of coordinating multi-agent systems is by using protocols to which are attached constraints on interaction; but protocols are brittle, in the sense that the constraints they contain must either succeed or fail, and if they fail the entire protocol may fail. We apply a constraint relaxation technique originally for automated negotiation using a distributed protocol language called the Lightweight Coordination Calculus (LCC), in order to overcome a class of conflicts, making protocols less brittle. This approach is illustrated in a scenario involving the ordering and configuration of a computer between the customer and vendor agents.