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Commitments and Projects

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AISB91

Abstract

A computational model is developed, which captures properties of relationship and organization in sets of distributed intelligent agents. The model is inspired by sociological theory, and uses centrally a concept of commitment. A formulation of the concept of commitment is proposed. The concept is propagated into notions of agent and organization. A formulation and computational model of the basic notion of commitment is given, which represents commitments as mutually agreed constraints on action, belief and world state.

A special type of organization is introduced which consists of a set of projects. Each project is decomposed into a set of specialized activities or problems carried out by a set of specialized agents. Projects are elaborated, by searching a space of subproblems. Agents share a common world, but have different views of it. They propose individual actions in their own views, and these are negotiated among the set of agents and jointly committed to. Each commitment is a constraint on the shared world being planned.

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of California, 4173C Engineering 1, Los Angeles, California, 90024, USA

    Alan H. Bond

Authors
  1. Alan H. Bond
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

    Luc Steels MSc, PhD (Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Director VUB AI Laboratory) (Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Director VUB AI Laboratory)

  2. School of Computer Studies, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    Barbara Smith BSc, MSc, PhD

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© 1991 Springer-Verlag London Limited

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Bond, A.H. (1991). Commitments and Projects. In: Steels, L., Smith, B. (eds) AISB91. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-1852-7_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-1852-7_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-19671-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-1852-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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