Papers by Martin Kollingbaum
Norms are the obligations, permissions and prohibitions associated with members of a society. Nor... more Norms are the obligations, permissions and prohibitions associated with members of a society. Norms provide a useful abstraction with which to specify and regulate the behaviour of self-interested software agents in open, heterogeneous systems. Any realistic account of norms must address their dynamic nature: the norms associated with agents will change as agents act (and interact) -prohibitions can be lifted, obligations can be fulfilled, and permissions can be revoked as a result of agents' actions. These norms may at times conflict with one another, that is, an action may be simultaneously prohibited and obliged (or prohibited and permitted). Such conflicts cause norm-compliant agents to experience a paralysis: whatever they do (or not do) will go against a norm. In this paper we present mechanisms to detect and resolve normative conflicts. We achieve more expressiveness, precision and realism in our norms by using constraints over first-order variables. The mechanisms to detect and resolve norm conflicts take into account such constraints and are based on first-order unification and constraint satisfaction. We also explain how the mechanisms can be deployed in the management of norms regulating environments for software agents.
Norms are the obligations, permissions and prohibitions associated with members of a society. Nor... more Norms are the obligations, permissions and prohibitions associated with members of a society. Norms provide a useful abstraction with which to specify and regulate the behaviour of self-interested software agents in open, heterogeneous systems. Any realistic account of norms must address their dynamic nature: the norms associated with agents will change as agents act (and interact) -prohibitions can be lifted, obligations can be fulfilled, and permissions can be revoked as a result of agents' actions. These norms may at times conflict with one another, that is, an action may be simultaneously prohibited and obliged (or prohibited and permitted). Such conflicts cause norm-compliant agents to experience a paralysis: whatever they do (or not do) will go against a norm. In this paper we present mechanisms to detect and resolve normative conflicts. We achieve more expressiveness, precision and realism in our norms by using constraints over first-order variables. The mechanisms to detect and resolve norm conflicts take into account such constraints and are based on first-order unification and constraint satisfaction. We also explain how the mechanisms can be deployed in the management of norms regulating environments for software agents.
Proceedings of the 2006 International Workshop on Workshop on Interdisciplinary Software Engineering Research, May 20, 2006
The conventional ways of building software are accepted to produce rigid systems that impede the ... more The conventional ways of building software are accepted to produce rigid systems that impede the processes of change typical for contemporary organisations. In this paper, we propose that software can be made more adaptable and tuned to the needs of changing organisations, if it is built using organisation-inspired principles and software structures such as Virtual Organisations, roles and norms. Agentbased software engineering is already using these principles, and we extend the state of the art in that domain by proposing an "open systems" approach, where agents can join and leave Virtual Organisations at will, taking on different roles as needed. Reasoning on organisational roles and norms is facilitated by formalised contract templates and automatic conflict resolution strategies. In terms of overall lifecycle, a system is initiated to satisfy a set of formalised requirements. Agents respond to bids for joining a Virtual Organisation, where each bid is for a contract-based coalition. In this paper, we describe our approach and outline a set of research challenges.
Development of algorithms for agent based control of manufacturing flow shops
This paper reports on a development process for determining a suitable algorithm for application ... more This paper reports on a development process for determining a suitable algorithm for application withm agent based shop floor control systems. In particular, the algorithm discussed here is focussed on the achievement of high and consistent levels of production throughput in a ...
Proceedings of the first international joint conference on Autonomous agents and multiagent systems part 1 - AAMAS '02, 2002
Supervised interaction is concerned with the problem of establishing trust between contracting ag... more Supervised interaction is concerned with the problem of establishing trust between contracting agents in electronic markets. Agents act as representatives of their organisations or of individuals, negotiate contracts for the supply of goods and services and manage their delivery. It is essential for the automation of business transactions to put safeguards in place that ensure that errant behaviour is either prevented or sanctioned. The model proposed in the paper -Supervised Interaction -consists of three elements: an organisational framework, a contract specification language and a contract management protocol. The organisational framework emphasises the importance of introducing a trusted third party into any automated business transaction. Three essential roles are, therefore, proposed: the addressee, counter-party and authority. The normative positions of the agents involved in an automated business transaction are explicitly expressed within the contracts that govern agents' behaviour during supervised interaction. This interaction model is designed to provide the web of trust necessary for successful deployment of agent-mediated electronic markets.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2003
Supervised interaction is concerned with the problem of establishing trust between contracting ag... more Supervised interaction is concerned with the problem of establishing trust between contracting agents in electronic markets. It is designed to put safeguards in place that ensure that errant behaviour in business transactions is either prevented or sanctioned. Supervised Interaction consists of three elements: an organisational framework, a contract specification language and a contract management protocol. The organisational framework emphasises the importance of introducing a trusted third party into any automated business transaction. The normative positions of the agents involved in an automated business transaction are explicitly expressed within the contracts that govern agents' behaviour during supervised interaction. This interaction model is designed to provide the web of trust necessary for successful deployment of agent-mediated electronic markets.
Achieving Conflict Freedom in Norm-Based Societies
Abstract. Obligations, permissions and prohibitions, are a useful abstraction to specify and regu... more Abstract. Obligations, permissions and prohibitions, are a useful abstraction to specify and regulate the actions of self-interested software agents in open, heterogeneous systems. Any realistic account of such norms must address their dynamic nature: prohibitions can be lifted, obligations can be fulfilled and permissions can be revoked as a result of agents' behaviours. These norms may at times conflict with one another, that is, an action may be simultaneously prohibited and obliged (or prohibited and permitted). In this paper, we ...
Proceedings of the second international joint conference on Autonomous agents and multiagent systems - AAMAS '03, 2003
Contracts in the real world often rest upon a notion of responsibility, by which parties commit t... more Contracts in the real world often rest upon a notion of responsibility, by which parties commit to the fulfilment of particular imperatives embedded in the contract. Responsibility is not the same as direct action, nor commitment to such action: a canonical example is where imperatives are issued, in a particular context, to effect the delegation of responsibility. Furthermore, responsibility can range not only over particular activities, but also over particular states of the world. This paper first explains the problem of statebased and event-based responsibility, and then illustrates how this is operationalised in the NoA system through the use of an example.
Heterogenous agents designed by, and distributed across various providers participate in an open ... more Heterogenous agents designed by, and distributed across various providers participate in an open multi-agent system (MAS). Norms (i.e., obligations, prohibitions, and permissions), sanctions, and incentives are enforced within an open MAS to ensure that agents act and interact only in ways that satisfy stakeholders' requirements. We propose a framework, called Requirements-driven Contracting (RdC) for deriving executable norms, sanctions, and incentives from the requirements and associated relevant information. RdC allows the use of requirements engineering concepts and methods to govern the open MAS. RdC ensures that all requirements, along with runtime changes of requirements are reflected in the norms, sanctions, and incentives regulating the behavior of agents in an open MAS.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Aug 16, 2004
In order to increase the number of agent applications in practical use, it is a given that we nee... more In order to increase the number of agent applications in practical use, it is a given that we need to incease the rate at which problems are conceptualized and specified using MAS-based approaches. However, we must also address two other problems: moving from specification to actual implemented systems without programming from scratch, and the training of people to carry out such work. In this paper we examine four desiderata for practical development tools -a focus on programming as opposed to architecture; programming at the multi-agent level; "valueadded" architectures; support for persistent, flexible, robust action. We also examine observed training shortfalls of graduate students attempting to implement technically complex multi-agent applications. These desiderata and observations are made in the context of DECAF, an MAS development toolkit developed at the University of Delaware and based on early versions of RETSINA.
Emergent Flow Shop Control based on MASCADA Agents
KULeuven. ...
A collaborative planning effort between partners that form coalitions may be complicated by polic... more A collaborative planning effort between partners that form coalitions may be complicated by policies that regulate what actions they may deploy in their plans and, in particular, what information they are allowed to exchange during the planning process. We are interested in situations where coalitions have to be formed ad-hoc without much co-training. For this, we investigate how agents can support human planners in producing good plans while observing the normative standards that regulate their planning and communication behavior. Based on an implementation of such norm-processing agents, we conducted a set of experiments, where human test subjects were conducting collaborative planning tasks under the guidance of these agents. A summary of experimental results is provided in the paper.
The creation of joint plans within teams is a complex task, especially if these teams are formed ... more The creation of joint plans within teams is a complex task, especially if these teams are formed in an ad-hoc fashion with limited co-training. Team members may have to plan their actions in accordance with a set of regulations or mission policies and by observing planning constraints. For ad-hoc teams operating under time-stressed conditions, this is a difficult task. In this paper, we describe how to construct agents that can support teams in their collaborative planning effort. We show how agents can be integrated into the planning and communication activities of human planners. Agents monitor human planners, reason about their actions and advise them on possible violations of mission policies and planning constraints.
Norms (permissions, obligations and prohibitions) offer a useful and powerful abstraction with wh... more Norms (permissions, obligations and prohibitions) offer a useful and powerful abstraction with which to capture social constraints in multi-agent systems.
This paper discusses a multi-agent coordination and control system design, inspired by the behavi... more This paper discusses a multi-agent coordination and control system design, inspired by the behaviour of social insects. This design makes desirable overall system behaviour emerge without exposing individual agents to the complexity and the dynamics of the overall system. This enables these individual agents to survive changes without maintenance, it allows individual agents to be re-usable across systems, and it allows having the emergent behaviour handle disturbances. The paper starts with the biological concept, stigmergy, that constitutes the basis of the coordination and control system. Next, it discusses the different steps in the development of a coordination and control system.
Virtual organisations can be regarded as sets of roles that introduce normative directives for ag... more Virtual organisations can be regarded as sets of roles that introduce normative directives for agents joining such organisations by adopting these roles. An agent in a specific role holds a set of obligations, permissions and prohibitions that govern its practical reasoning. In adopting such a role, it commits to fulfill its obligations. A specific problem poses organisational change. In such a situation, the normative directives within the organisation may change and an agent may experience normative changes to the role (or set of roles) it has adopted. Such changes can create conflicts -the agent may not be able to determine whether the actions it deploys for fulfilling its obligations are allowed or forbidden options. Means for disambiguating the normative position of an agent become a necessity. In this paper, the NoA model of norm-governed agency is described. Agents based on this model are governed by norms in their practical reasoning. This model specifically deals with organisational change with the goal to make an agent robust against possible norm conflicts. Based on the characteristics of the NoA model, a classification of possible conflicts is presented and means for detection and resolution provided.
This paper introduces a Normative Agent Architecture as an appropriate contract management framew... more This paper introduces a Normative Agent Architecture as an appropriate contract management framework for Supervised Interaction. Supervised interaction is concerned with the problem of establishing trust between contracting agents in electronic markets. It is designed to put safeguards in place that ensure that errant behaviour in business transactions is either prevented or sanctioned. Supervised Interaction consists of three elements: an organisational framework, a contract specification language and a contract management protocol. The normative agent architecture has to meet certain requirements to allow agents to engage in business transactions according to Supervised Interaction. These requirements are, among others: understanding of normative behaviour specifications within contracts and their correct execution, and goal generation and plan selection based on norms.
NoA is an agent architecture that supports the development of agents motivated by norms: ob liga... more NoA is an agent architecture that supports the development of agents motivated by norms: ob ligations, permissions and prohibitions. Obliga tions motivate a normative agent to act: a motive to achieve a state of affairs or to perform some action. Prohibitions restrict an agent's behaviour, whereas permissions allow an agent to pursue certain activities. To test the architecture, NoA agents arc applied to automated business transac tion scenarios where the correct execution of contracts is paramount to create a situation of trust.
Proceedings of the 2006 international workshop on Workshop on interdisciplinary software engineering research - WISER '06, 2006
The conventional ways of building software are accepted to produce rigid systems that impede the ... more The conventional ways of building software are accepted to produce rigid systems that impede the processes of change typical for contemporary organisations. In this paper, we propose that software can be made more adaptable and tuned to the needs of changing organisations, if it is built using organisation-inspired principles and software structures such as Virtual Organisations, roles and norms. Agentbased software engineering is already using these principles, and we extend the state of the art in that domain by proposing an "open systems" approach, where agents can join and leave Virtual Organisations at will, taking on different roles as needed. Reasoning on organisational roles and norms is facilitated by formalised contract templates and automatic conflict resolution strategies. In terms of overall lifecycle, a system is initiated to satisfy a set of formalised requirements. Agents respond to bids for joining a Virtual Organisation, where each bid is for a contract-based coalition. In this paper, we describe our approach and outline a set of research challenges.
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Papers by Martin Kollingbaum