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The role of the environment in agreement technologies

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Abstract

The notion of Multi-Agent System environment is currently considered as a mediating entity, functioning as enabler but possibly also as a manager and constrainer of agent actions, perceptions, and interactions. In this paper, we analyze how the environment could be a first class abstraction to support the building, the development and the management of Agreements in decentralized and open systems between autonomous agents. To this aim we analyze the synergies between the environment and the foundational dimensions of agreement technologies such as semantics, norms, organizations, argumentation & negotiation, trust.

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Notes

  1. see (Weyns et al. 2007) for comprehensive surveys.

  2. Agreement Technologies refer to computer systems in which autonomous software agents negotiate with each other, typically on behalf of humans, in order to come to mutually acceptable agreements.

  3. Memorandum of Understanding of the Agreement Technologies COST Action IC0801, http://w3.cost.eu/fileadmin/domain_files/ICT/Action_IC0801/mou/IC0801-e.pdf last accessed 27th September 2012.

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Acknowledgments

This paper is the synthesis of the discussions from the workshop and panel about Environment in Agreement Technologies, held during the COST Action IC0801 Agreement Technologies meeting June 1 and 2, 2012, organized by O. Boissier, C. Carrascosa, A. Ricci, M. Schumacher. We would like to thank the COST Action IC0801 for the support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento Sistemas Informáticos y Computación, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain

    Estefanía Argente

  2. LSTI/Institut Henri Fayol, ENS Mines Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne, France

    Olivier Boissier

  3. Departamento Sistemas Informáticos y Computación, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain

    Carlos Carrascosa

  4. Faculty of Communication Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland

    Nicoletta Fornara

  5. Department of Informatics, King’s College London, London, UK

    Peter McBurney

  6. Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA-CSIC), Spanish National Research Council, Barcelona, Spain

    Pablo Noriega & Jordi Sabater-Mir

  7. DISI, University of Bologna, Cesena, Italy

    Alessandro Ricci

  8. Institute of Business Information Systems, University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland, Sierre, Switzerland

    Michael Ignaz Schumacher & Charalampos Tampitsikas

  9. Department of Informatics, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia

    Kuldar Taveter

  10. Complex Systems and Artificial Intelligence research center, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy

    Giuseppe Vizzari

  11. Department of Digital Systems, University of Piraeus, Piraeus, Greece

    George Vouros

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  1. Estefanía Argente
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  2. Olivier Boissier
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  3. Carlos Carrascosa
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  4. Nicoletta Fornara
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  6. Pablo Noriega
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  7. Alessandro Ricci
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  8. Jordi Sabater-Mir
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  9. Michael Ignaz Schumacher
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  10. Charalampos Tampitsikas
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  11. Kuldar Taveter
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  12. Giuseppe Vizzari
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  13. George Vouros
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Correspondence to Olivier Boissier.

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Argente, E., Boissier, O., Carrascosa, C. et al. The role of the environment in agreement technologies. Artif Intell Rev 39, 21–38 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-012-9388-1

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