Abstract
Multi-agent architectures are well suited for complex inherently distributed problem solving domains. From the many challenging aspects that arise within this framework, a crucial one emerges: how to incorporate dynamic and conflicting agent beliefs? While the belief revision activity in a single agent scenario is concentrated on incorporating new information while preserving consistency, in a multi-agent system it also has to deal with possible conflicts between the agents perspectives. To provide an adequate framework, each agent, built as a combination of an assumption based belief revision system and a cooperation layer, was enriched with additional features: a distributed search control mechanism allowing dynamic context management, and a set of different distributed consistency methodologies. As a result, a Distributed Belief Revision Testbed (DiBeRT) was developed. This paper is a preliminary report presenting some of DiBeRT contributions: a concise representation of external beliefs; a simple and innovative methodology to achieve distributed context management; and a reduced inter-agent data exchange format.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
M. Barbuceanu and M. S. Fox, “The Architecture of an Agent Building Shell”, Intelligent Agents Volume II — Proceedings of the 1995 Workshop on Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages (ATAL-95)”, Edited by M. Wooldridge and J. P. Müller and M. Tambe, Springer-Verlag, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, 1996, In this volume.
J. Chu-Caroll and S. Carberry, “Conflict Detection and Resolution in Collaborative Planning”, Intelligent Agents Volume II — Proceedings of the 1995 Workshop on Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages (ATAL-95)”, Edited by M. Wooldridge and J. P. Müller and M. Tambe, Springer-Verlag, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, 1996, In this volume.
C. Beckstein, R. Fughe and G. Kraetzschmar, “Supporting Assumption-Based Reasoning in a Distributed Environment”, Proceedings of the 12th International Workshop on Distributed Artificial Intelligence, Hidden Valley, Pennsylvania, 1993.
A. Callatay, “Natural and Artificial Intelligence”, North Holland, Elsevier Publishers, 1992.
M. R. Cravo and J. P. Martins, “A Unified Approach to Default Reasoning and Belief Revision”, Proc. of the 6th Portuguese Conference on AI, EPIA93, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Springer-Verlag, 1993.
E. Davis, “Constraint Propagation with Interval Labels”, Artificial Intelligence, 32, 1987.
J. Doyle, “A Truth Maintenance System”, Artificial Intelligence 12, 1979.
J. de Kleer, “An Assumption-based TMS”, Artificial Intelligence, 28 (2), 1986.
M. N. Huhns and D. M. Bridgeland, “Multi-Agent Truth Maintenance”, IEEE Trans. on Systems, Man and Cybernetics 21 (6), 1991.
B. Malheiro, N. Jennings and E. Oliveira, “Belief Revision in Multi-Agent Systems”, Proc. of the 11th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Amsterdam, Holland, 1994.
J. P. Martins, “The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing But The Truth”, AI Magazine, Special Issue, 1990.
C. Mason and R. Johnson, “DATMS: A Framework for Distributed Assumption Based Reasoning”, in Distributed Artificial Intelligence Vol II, Edited by L. Gasser and M. N. Huhns, 1989.
C. Mason,“ROO: A Distributed AI Toolkit For Belief Based Reasoning Agents”, Proc. of the 2nd International Working Conference on Cooperating Knowledge Based Systems, Keele, UK, 1994.
C. Mason, “Introspection as Control in Result-Sharing Assumption-Based Reasoning Agents”, in Proc. of the 13th International DAI Workshop, Seattle, USA, 1994.
J. R. Searle, “Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language”, Cambridge University Press, 1969.
T. Wittig (Editor), “ARCHON: An Architecture for Cooperative Multi-Agent Systems”, Ellis Horwood, 1992.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Malheiro, B., Oliveira, E. (1996). Consistency and context management in a multi-agent belief revision testbed. In: Wooldridge, M., Müller, J.P., Tambe, M. (eds) Intelligent Agents II Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages. ATAL 1995. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1037. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3540608052_78
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3540608052_78
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-60805-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-49594-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive