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The Deontic Transaction Model in Multi-Agent Normative SystemsIn the area of multi-agent systems, much research is devoted to the coordination of the agents. There exist several issues, two of which are summarized. The first is that, although agents are said to be autonomous, they always react in a predictable way to each message, and they cannot decide to violate the conventions that are hard-wired into the protocol. In fact, there might be circumstances in which the agent violates a convention in order to realize a private goal that it considers to be more important. Another issue is that, if the protocols that agents use to react to the environment are fixed, they have no way to respond to changes. However, an important characteristic of agents is that they eon react to a changing environment. Although transaction models ([BOH92], [GR93]) evolved from the database domain, they establish a general execution paradigm that ideally covers all the subsystems invoked in a sequence of transactions. So transaction models apply to multi-agent systems. Recently, some research has been devoted to overcoming the limitations of the traditional transaction models which are suitable for conventional systems and focus on system integrity, e,g., [SJ97]. Here we solve above issues by turning to a deontic concept: obligation. In multi-agent systems, agents interact with each other according to norms, We use deontic logic ([And58], [Aqv84], [B C96], [JS94], [MW93]) to model norms. Here the norms prescribe how the agents ought to behave, but-- and this is essential-- they do not exclude the possibility of "bad" behavior (i.e., the actual behavior may deviate from the ideal), and so they also prescribe what should be done in circumstances of norm violation. Thus, we propose a new approach --- a deontic transaction model for multi-agent normative systems. Our approach improves the protocol of "abort/commit" of traditional transaction models to a protocol of "abort/exception/commit". In multi-agent normative systems, we can see the violation of a norm as an exception and how the other agents react to the violation as exception handling. This paper concentrates on our formal model.
Document ID
20000032308
Acquisition Source
Ames Research Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Huang, Yonghua
(North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State Univ. Greensboro,NC United States)
Esterline, Albert
(North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State Univ. Greensboro,NC United States)
Date Acquired
August 19, 2013
Publication Date
February 22, 1998
Publication Information
Publication: NASA University Research Centers Technical Advances in Aeronautics, Space Sciences and Technology, Earth Systems Sciences, Global Hydrology, and Education
Volume: 2 and 3
Subject Category
Cybernetics, Artificial Intelligence And Robotics
Report/Patent Number
98URC150
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAG5-4102
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAG2-1150
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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