Online Automated Synthesis of Compact Normative Systems

Abstract

Most normative systems make use of explicit representations of norms (namely, obligations, prohibitions, and permissions) and associated mechanisms to support the self-regulation of open societies of self-interested and autonomous agents. A key problem in research on normative systems is that of how to synthesise effective and efficient norms. Manually designing norms is time consuming and error prone. An alternative is to automatically synthesise norms. However, norm synthesis is a computationally complex problem. We present a novel online norm synthesis mechanism, designed to synthesise compact normative systems. It yields normative systems composed of concise (simple) norms that effectively coordinate a multiagent system (MAS) without lapsing into overregulation. Our mechanism is based on a central authority that monitors a MAS, searching for undesired states. After detecting undesirable states, the central authority then synthesises norms aimed to avoid them in the future. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach through experimental results.

The Internet of Things and Multiagent Systems: Decentralized Intelligence in Distributed Computing

“…Enlightened governance requires advances in many areas. We would need to be able to infer the descriptive norms of an Iota from observations or records of interactions [44], [45]. Further, once the descriptive norms are known, stakeholders would decide whether and how to close the gap.…”

Reinforcement Learning of Normative Monitoring Intensities

“…[14] have proposed a mechanism for the automated synthesis of norms that ensures norms are conflict free and achieve certain coordination properties. In contrast, we assume the set of norms is static, and the synthesis approach proposed by Morales et al does not consider the possibility of imperfect or variable enforcement.…”

Using IRON to build frictionless on-line communities

“…This generation process is based on an unsupervised version of classical Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) [1] (more details can be found at [12]). The create operator synthesises a new norm from each new detected conflict.…”

“…With this aim, our mechanism is founded on the configuration and exploitation of IRON (Intelligent Robust On-line Norm synthesis machine) [12], a state-of-the-art norm synthesis mechanism, to employ it in an agent-based simulation of an on-line community. Our mechanism takes into account users' actions and feedback to synthesise norms that prevent users from uploading inappropriate contents, hence avoiding frictions.…”

“…(2) The adaptation of IRON [12] to synthesise norms for our on-line community simulator at runtime. In our simulator, users are modelled as agents that interact by exchanging contents.…”