Formalizing Commitments Using Action Languages

Abstract

This paper investigates the use of high-level action languages for representing and reasoning about commitments in multi-agent domains. We introduce the language ${\cal L}^{mt}$, an extension of the language $\cal L$, with new features motivated by the problem of representing and reasoning about commitments. The paper demonstrates how features and properties of commitments can be described in this action language. We show how ${\cal L}^{mt}$ can handle both simple commitment actions as well as complex commitment protocols. Furthermore, the semantics of ${\cal L}^{mt}$ provides a uniform solution to different problems in reasoning about commitments such as the problem of (i) verifying whether an agent fails (or succeeds) to deliver on its commitments; (ii) identifying pending commitments; and (iii) suggesting ways to satisfy pending commitments.