Abstract
In open normative multi-agent communities, an agent is not usually and explicitly given the norms of the host agents. Thus, when it is not able to adapt the communities’s norms, it is totally deprived of accessing resources and services from the host. Such circumstance severely affects its performance resulting in failure to achieve its goal. Consequently, this study attempts to overcome this deficiency by proposing a technique that enables an agent to detect the host’s potential norms via self-enforcement and update its norms even in the absence of sanctions from a third-party. The authors called this technique as the potential norms detection technique (PNDT). The PNDT consists of five components: Agent’s belief base; observation process; potential norms mining algorithm (PNMA); verification process; and updating process. The authors demonstrate the operation of the PNMA algorithm by testing it on a typical scenario and analyzing the results on several perspectives. The tests’ results show that the PNDT performs satisfactorily albeit the success rate depends on the environment variables settings.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Boella G, Pigozzi G, and Torre L V D, Normative framework for normative system change, Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, AAMAS’s, 2009, 9: 169–176.
Savarimuthu B T R, Mechanisms for norm emergence and norm identification in multi-agent societies, Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Otago, 2011.
Mahmoud M A, Ahmad, M S, Ahmad A, et al., Obligation and prohibition norms mining algorithm for normative multi-agent systems, KES-AMSTA, 2013, 115–124.
Mahmoud M A, Ahmad M S, Ahmad A, et al., Building norms-adaptable agents from potential norms detection technique (PNDT), International Journal of Intelligent Information Technologies (IJIIT), 2013, 9(3): 38–60.
Mahmoud M A, Mustapha A, Ahmad M S, et al., Potential norms detection in social agent societies, Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence, 2013, 419–428.
Epstein J, Learning to be thoughtless: Social norms and individual computation, Computational Economics, 2001, 18(1): 9–24.
Kotsiantis S and Kanellopoulos D, Association rules mining: A recent overview, International Transactions on Computer Science and Engineering, 2006, 32(1): 71–82.
Ogunde A, Follorunso O, Sodiiya A, et al., Improved cost models for agent-based association rule mining in distributed database, Anale. SeriaInformatica, 2011, IX(1): 231–250.
Symeonidis A L and Mitkas P A, Agent intelligence through data mining, The 17th European Conference on Machine Learning and the 10th European Conference on Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases, 2006.
Sen S and Airiau S, Emergence of norms through social learning. Proceedings of IJCAI-07, 2007, 1507–1512.
Symeonidis A and Mitkas P, A methodology for predicting agent behavior by the use of data mining techniques, Autonomous Intelligent Systems: Agents and Data Mining, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 3505, Springer Berlin/Heidelberg, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2005, 161–174.
Castelfranchi C, Conte R, and Paolucci M, Normative reputation and the cost of compliance, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 1998, 1(3): 3.
Sartor G, Why agents comply with norms and why they should, Rosaria Conte and Chrysanthos-Dellarocas, editors, Social Order in Multiagent Systems, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 2001.
Andrighetto G, Conte R, Turrini P, et al., Emergence in the loop: Simulating the two way dynamics of norm innovation, Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Schloss Dagstuhl-Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik, 2007.
Young H P, The evolution of conventions, Econometrica, 1993, 61(1): 57–84.
Villatoro D, Self-organization in decentralized agent societies through social norms, The 10th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems AAMAS’11, 2011, 1373–1374.
Harrison J R, Lin Z, Carroll G R, et al., Simulation modeling in organizational and management research, Academy of Management Review, 2007, 32(4): 1229–1245.
Mahmoud M A, Ahmad M S, Ahmad A, et al., Optimal environmental simulation settings to observe exceptional events in social agent societies, Journal of Artificial Intelligence, 2013, 6: 191–209.
Xu J and van der Schaar M, Social norm design for information exchange systems with limited observations, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, 2012, 2126–2135.
Cardoso H L and Oliveira E C, Adaptive deterrence sanctions in a normative framework, IAT, IEEE, 2009, 36–43.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This paper was recommended for publication by Editor WANG Xiaofan.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mahmoud, M., Ahmad, M.S. & Mohd Yusoff, M.Z. Development and implementation of a technique for norms-adaptable agents in open multi-agent communities. J Syst Sci Complex 29, 1519–1537 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11424-016-5036-1
Received:
Revised:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11424-016-5036-1