Dialogues for Negotiation: Agent Varieties and Dialogue Sequences

Abstract

This work presents a formal, logic-based approach to one-to-one agent negotiation, in the context of goal achievement in systems of agents with limited resource availability. The proposed solution is based on agent dialogues as a way, e.g., to request resources and propose resource exchanges. It relies upon agents agreeing solely upon a language for negotiation, while possibly adopting different negotiation policies, each corresponding to an agent variety. Agent dialogues can be connected within sequences, all aimed at achieving an individual agent’s goal. Sets of sequences aim at allowing all agents in the system to achieve their goals, and can be used, e.g., to solve the resource reallocation problem. We model dialogues via logic-based dialogue constraints, and propose an execution model to be adopted for the automatic generation of dialogues. We also propose an agent dialogue cycle for the automatic generation of sequences of dialogues. Finally, we identify some desirable properties of dialogues, dialogue sequences and sets of such sequences, and prove/disprove these properties for concrete agent varieties.