Automating Auctions & Negotiation

Question 1

What is negotiation with agents described as?

Answer 1

Negotiation is a form of interaction in which a group of agents with conflicting interests try to come to a mutually acceptable agreeable agreement over some outcome.

Question 2

What four things is an Agent?

Answer 2

1. REACTIVE : it responds to changes in its environment
2. PROACTIVE : it has goals which it tries to achieve
3. AUTONOMOUS : it makes decisions on its own
4. SOCIAL : usually, it is not purely selfish, but is aware of goals of other agents

Question 3

How is an agent different to an object?

Answer 3

• Objects do not have autonomy.
• They always execute whatever their function is.
• Objects are invoked, agents are represented, to perform some function.
• Objects are usually neither reactive or proactive.
• Agents often have a model of the other agents they interact with.

Question 4

What does the subject of multi agent systems deal with?

Answer 4

The design of autonomous agents.

The design of systems of autonomous agents.

Question 5

What are the two main proposals for Agent communication languages?

Answer 5

1. Knowledge Query and Manipulation Language.

2. FIPA ACL

Question 6

Explain how the FIPA ACL language works.

Answer 6

The topics of discussion between agents are assumed to be written in some language e.g. first order logic (message content).

Contents are wrapped in outer commands, called performatives or locutions.

These are commands which transmit some information about the topic.

FIPA has 22 performatives.

Question 7

What four actions does ‘negotiation’ involve in FIPA performatives?

Answer 7

1. Call for proposal (cfp) : the sender calls for proposals from the receiver to perform a given action.
2. Propose: The sender submits a proposal to the receiver to perform a certain action, given pre-conditions stated in the message.
3. Accept-proposal: The sender indicates acceptance of some proposal to perform an action which was previously submitted to the sender by the receiver.
4. Reject- proposal: The sender indicates rejection of some proposal to perform an action which was previously submitted to the sender by the receiver.

Question 8

What are some examples of what happens with the ‘Action’ performative?

Answer 8

• Agree: The sender agrees to perform some action, possibly in the future.
• Cancel: The sender informs the receiver that the sender no longer has the intention that the receiver perform some action.
• Refuse: The sender refuses to perform some action, and may explain the reasons for the refusal.
• Request: The sender requests the receiver to perform some action.
• Request-when: The sender wants the receiver to perform some action when a given proposition becomes true.
• Request-whenever: The sender wants the receiver to perform some action as soon as a certain proposition becomes true and thereafter each time that proposition becomes true again.

Question 9

How are the FIPA performatives related to the philosophy of language called speech theory?

Answer 9

• Each performative has been given a specific meaning in terms of the ‘mental’ attitudes of the agents involved in the discussion:
  
  • Beliefs, Uncertain Beliefs, and Intentions
• We can define preconditions and post-conditions for the successful utterance of speech act.

Question 10

What do pre and post-conditions specify to agents?

Answer 10

• The preconditions specify what must be true before the locution can be uttered.
• The post-conditions specify what is true after each utterance.