Informing Regulatory Dynamics in Open MASs

Abstract

International audienceWe believe that, in the near future, all multi-agent systems (MASs) will be open, permitting agents to migrate among MASs to obtain resources or services not found locally. In this scenario, open MASs should be enhanced with norms for restricting agents’ actions and, thus, avoiding unexpected behavior. In this work, we present a case study where an open MAS is enhanced with contextual norms. Agents from this MAS are continuously supported with precise norm information, according to their contexts (implicit situational information) and, then, can make better decisions. Although the presented case study is simple, it clearly shows different levels of norm abstractions and how agents can be influenced by norms while acting in a regulated open MASs

Contextualizing normative open multi-agent systems

“…More precisely: according to Rule1,in (4), USA is discovered as the owner environment of Virginia; in (3), the "ObligationToPayWithNationalCurrency" environment norm of USA is discovered; and in (2), this norm is composed with the "ObligationToImposeAStateCorporateIncomeTax" environment norm of Virginia. According to Rule3,in (12), Virginia is discovered as the environment of IMD; in (11), the environment norms of Virginia are discovered; and in (10), these norms are added as IMD norms. According to Rule4,in (16), IMD is discovered as the organization of the "AIMDSupplier" role; in (15), the norms of IMD are discovered; and in (14), these norms are composed with the "ObligationToRequestADownPayment" role norm of the "AIMDSuppier".…”

“…end for (10) Let {Pact 1 , ..., Pact l } be the set of the activated Petri nets including t ij ∈ {t 1 , ..., t n }; (11) for all Pact j ∈ {Pact 1 , ..., Pact l } do (11) for all t ij ∈ {t 1 , ..., t n } do (12) activates the transition t ij from Pact j ; (13) if (t ij is fireable) then (14) fire the transition t ij ; (15) remove t ij from {t 1 , ..., t n }; (16) else (17) throw an exception (18) end for (19) if (Pact j is in a final state) then (20) remove Pact j from {Pact 1 , ..., Pact l }; (21) end for…”

“…See[12] for more information about agents' decisions based on contextual norms, reported in a case study.…”

Modeling of Open Normative Multiagent Systems

“…In (Felicíssimo et al, 2008a), the details about how DynaCROM contextualizes norms in a NMAS, from the perspectives of individual agents and the system developer, are provided. In (Felicíssimo et al, 2008c), a case study from the television domain and, in (Felicíssimo et al, 2007), a case study from the domain of multinational corporations are presented.…”