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Fuzzy Constraint-Based Agent Negotiation

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Abstract

Conflicts between two or more parties arise for various reasons and perspectives. Thus, resolution of conflicts frequently relies on some form of negotiation. This paper presents a general problem-solving framework for modeling multi-issue multilateral negotiation using fuzzy constraints. Agent negotiation is formulated as a distributed fuzzy constraint satisfaction problem (DFCSP). Fuzzy constrains are thus used to naturally represent each agent’s desires involving imprecision and human conceptualization, particularly when lexical imprecision and subjective matters are concerned. On the other hand, based on fuzzy constraint-based problem-solving, our approach enables an agent not only to systematically relax fuzzy constraints to generate a proposal, but also to employ fuzzy similarity to select the alternative that is subject to its acceptability by the opponents. This task of problem-solving is to reach an agreement that benefits all agents with a high satisfaction degree of fuzzy constraints, and move towards the deal more quickly since their search focuses only on the feasible solution space. An application to multilateral negotiation of a travel planning is provided to demonstrate the usefulness and effectiveness of our framework.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Management, Ching Yun University, Chung-Li

    Menq-Wen Lin

  2. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Yuan Ze University, Chung-Li

    K. Robert Lai & Ting-Jung Yu

Authors
  1. Menq-Wen Lin
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  2. K. Robert Lai
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  3. Ting-Jung Yu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Menq-Wen Lin.

Additional information

Menq-Wen Lin was born in 1962. He received his M.S. degree in computer science from New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Ph.D. degree in computer science and engineering from Yuan Ze University, in 2004. In 1990, he joined Ching Yun University, where he is now an assistant professor. His current research interests include data mining and agent technologies.

K. Robert Lai was born in 1955. He received his M.S. degree in computer science from Ohio State University, in 1982, and Ph.D. degree in computer science from North Carolina State University, in 1992. In 1994, he joined Yuan Ze University, where he is now an associate professor. His current research interests are in agent technologies, and wireless networking.

Ting-Jung Yu was born on August 31, 1966. He received his M.S. degree in resource management from “National Defence Management College” in 1993. He is presently working toward the Ph.D. degree in computer science and engineering at Yuan Ze University. His current research interests include agent technologies and fuzzy constraints.

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Lin, MW., Lai, K.R. & Yu, TJ. Fuzzy Constraint-Based Agent Negotiation. J Comput Sci Technol 20, 319–330 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11390-005-0319-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11390-005-0319-3

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