Components
Protocols - actions/state control
Agreement Object - terms ontology
Strategy - aims + protocol + valuation
Maximising Benefit
Utility + probabilities
Multiple attributes
British Telecom Example
Customer Service Agents
Qualifies customers
Design Agents + Legal Agents
qualify services
"Survey agents" visit site
to inventory customer resources and environment
One-to-Many Negotiations
Auctions efficient
English, Dutch, First-Sealed Bid, Vickrey..
Assumptions - trying to maximize utility on
either private or common goods under uncertainty.
Try to model opponent's beliefs or construct
belief-independent mechanism.
For English auction, no point in speculating
about competitors or in lying.
However, infinite resources required for
assumption of perfect rationality.
Either accept or counter-propose or reject (end
negotiation).
Counter-propose - fuzzy similarity used for trade-off,
use change of issue to break deadlock, or give ground.
Set strategy - identify issues and drivers and weight the
drivers,
Trend drivers to set tactics. Price vs Time, vs providers,
etc. weighted by strategy.
Tried negotiation tournament with different strategy types: pure (tough), static mixed, dynamic mixed. Successful in reverse order.
Persuasive negotiation
Feedback must include meta-information with
arguments for counter-proposal and stance.
threats, rewards, appeals - seek to modify
weighting of opponent.
Argumentation - rebuttal + undercutting
Agents can argue with each other while remaining
cooperative. Agents can even say they don't understand
the argument or rebuttal.