Towards Protocol-Based for Supporting
Agent Decision-Making in Open MAS
Carolina Howard Felicíssimo
Advisor: Prof. Carlos José Pereira de Lucena
Co-Advisor: Prof. Jean-Pierre Briot
Agenda
• Introduction
• Motivation
• Case Study
• The DynaCROM Approach
• Scope
• Chronogram of Activities
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Introduction
• Multi-Agent Systems (MAS)
– A powerful technology that has emerged as a promising
approach to develop information systems that are composed
of several goal-oriented problem-solving entities (agents)
• Open MAS
– A MAS where agents are able to join and leave it freely
– Key
heterogeneity (different
implementations – agents must be threaten as black-boxes), conflicting
individual goals and limited trust. Moreover, no
centralized control is feasible
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characteristics
are:
agent
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Motivation
Network Link
Open MAS
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Open MAS
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Motivation
Contexts: implicit situational information used to characterize situations of participants
Contextual Information
Network Link
Open MAS
Open MAS
Context Information: Environment, Organization, Roles and Interaction Protocols*
 Dynamically Provide Refined Protocol Information - a Reason & Effect approach
* Protocol: a set of contextual guidelines for acting
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Case Study – A Competitive Benchmarking for The
Trading Agent Community
The Supply Chain Management Game for the 2006 Trading Agent Competition
(TAC SCM-06)
•
8 supplier agents / (6) manufacturer
agents / 16 different PC configurations.
•
Each PC model is built from 4
component types: CPU, motherboards,
memories, and hard disks. 10 different
components (Pintel CPUs 2 and 5 GHz; IMD
CPUs 2 and 5 GHz; Pintel and IMD motherboards;
Memories 1 and 2 Gb; Hard Disks 300 and 500
Gb).
•
•
Basic Requirements for the
Manufacturer Agents:
–
Need to know how to place
RFQs and Orders for different
Suppliers
–
Need to know how to read
Offers from different Suppliers
Desired Requirement for the
Manufacturer Agents:
–
Choose offers considering
internal stimulus and external
stimulus (e.g., current economic
and politic laws)
© TAC SCM-06
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Case Study
Open Agent Platform
Open Agent Platform
supplies
dealWith
Basus Supplier
supplies
Watergate Supplier
dealWith
Pintel Motherboard
supplies
Hard Disk 300 Gb
Open Agent Platform
Open Agent Platform
dealWith
Macrostar Supplier
supplies
Mintor Supplier
dealWith
Open Agent Main Platform
manufactures
PC1
Agent Manufacturer
Open Agent Platform
dealWith
MEC Supplier
Pintel CPU 2.0
supplies
Memory 1 Gb
Open Agent Platform
Pintel Supplier
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supplies
Open Agent Platform
dealWith
dealWith
supplies
Queenmax Supplier
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Case Study
Open Agent Platform
Open Agent Platform
supplies
dealWith
Basus Supplier
supplies
Watergate Supplier
dealWith
IMD Motherboard
supplies
Hard Disk 500 Gb
Open Agent Platform
Open Agent Platform
dealWith
Macrostar Supplier
supplies
Mintor Supplier
dealWith
Open Agent Main Platform
manufactures
PC16
Agent Manufacturer
Open Agent Platform
dealWith
MEC Supplier
IMD CPU 5.0
supplies
Memory 2 Gb
Open Agent Platform
IMD Supplier
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supplies
Open Agent Platform
dealWith
dealWith
supplies
Queenmax Supplier
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Case Study
AMacrostarSupplier
AManufacturer
ABasusSupplier
sendRFQs(IMDMotherboard,50)
sendRFQs(IMDMotherboard,50)
calculatePrice
(IMDMotherboard,50)
Base Price: 250
calculatePrice
(IMDMotherboard,50)
Base Price: 250
Profit: +X%
Profit: +A%
Reputation: -Y%
Reputation: -B%
Offer Price: 300
Offer Price: 299
sendOffer(300)
sendOffer(299)
analyseOffers()
criterion(cheaperPrice)
sendOrder(IMDMotherboard,50)
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Case Study
Contextual Information
Open Agent Platform
Open Agent Platform
supplies
dealWith
Basus Supplier
IMD Motherboard
supplies
dealWith
Missouri
Hiroshima
Open Agent Platform
Open Agent Platform
dealWith
Macrostar Supplier
Colorado
dealWith
supplies
Watergate Supplier
Hard Disk 500 Gb
supplies
Mintor Supplier
Shanghai
Open Agent Main Platform
manufactures
PC16
Agent Manufacturer
California
Beijing
Open Agent Platform
dealWith
MEC Supplier
IMD CPU 5.0
California
supplies
IMD Supplier
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Osaka
Open Agent Platform
Open Agent Platform
dealWith
dealWith
supplies
Memory 2 Gb
supplies
Queenmax Supplier
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Case Study – Contextual Protocols
― Environment Protocol for Payments:
1. In USA, all negotiations are paid in American dollars (USD), its national currency.
Negotiations outside USA have to have their values converted from USD to the
national currency of the country where the seller is.
2. In Japan, all negotiations are paid in Yen, its national currency. Negotiations
outside Japan have to have their values converted from Yen to the national
currency of the country where the seller is.
3. In China, all negotiations are paid in Chinese yuan (CNY), its national currency.
Negotiations outside China have to have their values converted from CNY to the
national currency of the country where the seller is.
― Environment Protocol for Calculating Prices:
1. In Missouri, a state corporate income tax rate of 6.25 is imposed on all sales.
2. In Colorado, a state corporate income tax rate of 4.63 is imposed on all sales.
3. In Missouri, a three day sales tax holiday occurs, every year, from August 4 to 6.
Orders of computers and computers' components, with the maximum cost of
$3,050, are eligible for tax free during the holiday.  Example that can be
implemented as a Meta-Rule!
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DynaCROM
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Case Study – Contextual Protocols
― Interaction Protocol for Providing Discounts:
1. Basus and IMD offer 15% discount if their products are bought in bundles.
2. Macrostar and Pintel offer 10% discount if their products are bought in bundles.
― Role Protocol for Providing Discounts:
1. MEC suppliers can give up to 5% discount.
2. Queenmax suppliers can give up to 8% discount on orders paid in cash.
3. Queenmax suppliers apply duty free discounts for tourists.
― Organization Protocol for Providing Warranty:
1. Mintor give a two year limited warranty if a plus tax of 5% is accepted.
2. Watergate give one year limited warranty.
― Organization Protocol for Payments of Ship Costs:
1. Mintor pay ship costs when warranty verification detects defective products.
― Organization Protocol for Payments:
1. Every placed order for Queenmax must have a down payment of 10%.
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DynaCROM
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DynaCROM
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Case Study – Contextual Protocols
― Economic Protocol for Operating in the Market:
1. Trusts and monopolies (concentrations of wealth in the hands of a few) are
prohibited in all organizations.
2. Organizations are prohibited to make price fixing agreements.
3. Organizations are prohibited to form cartels.
 (Meta-Rule) Pintel organizations are permitted to increase 5% of their prices
when IMD organizations are in crisis or goes bankrupt.
― Politic Protocol for Operating in the Market:
1. Due to political crisis, American organizations are prohibited to deal with
Japanese organizations.
 (Meta-Rule) Mintor organizations are permitted to increase 10% of their
prices when Watergate organizations are not operating in the American
market.
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DynaCROM
An Approach for Dynamic Contextual
Information in Open MAS
DynaCROM
• An Approach for Dynamic Contextual Information in Open MAS
• It is based on:
– A Top-Down Contextual Modeling of Protocols
– Environment Protocols
– Organization Protocols
– Role Protocols
– Interaction Protocols
– A Meta-Ontology to Explicitly Represent Contexts
– A Rule Support to Compose and Retrieve Contextual Protocols
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DynaCROM
Rule1- [ruleForOrgWithMOrgLaws:
hasNorm(?Org,?MOrgLaws)
<- hasNorm(?MOrg,?MOrgLaws),
hasMainOrganization(?Org,?MOrg)]
Rule2- [ruleForOrgWithEnvLaws
hasNorm(?Org,?OrgEnvLaws)
<- hasNorm(?OrgEnv,?OrgEnvLaws),
isIn(?Org,?OrgEnv)
Rule3- [ruleForOrgWithOEnvOfOrgEnvLaws
hasNorm(?Org,?OEnvOfOrgEnvLaws)
<- hasNorm(?OEnvOfOrgEnv,?OEnvOfOrgEnvLaws),
belongsTo(?OrgEnv,?OEnvOfOrgEnv)
isIn(?Org,?OrgEnv)]
Rule4- [ruleForOrgWithMOrgEnvLaws:
hasNorm(?Org,?MOrgEnvLaws)
<- hasNorm(?MOrgEnv,?MOrgEnvLaws),
isIn(?MOrg,?MOrgEnv)
hasMainOrganization(?Org,?MOrg)]
Rule5- [ruleForOrgWithOEnvOfMOrgEnvLaws:
hasNorm(?Org,?OEnvOfMOrgEnvLaws)
<- hasNorm(?OEnvOfMOrgEnv,?OEnvOfMOrgEnvLaws),
belongsTo(?MOrgEnv,?OEnvOfMOrgEnv)
isIn(?MOrg,?MOrgEnv)
hasMainOrganization(?Org,?MOrg)]
349 customized compositions of contextual
norms can be achieved with only 19 rules
(Environment: 1=1 C1 = 1; Organization: =1
C = 31; Role: =1 C  = 63; Interaction: 2* =1
C  = 254).
Formula: =1 C = 2 - 1
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DynaCROM Behavior
DynaCROM – Current Implemented Architecture
DynaCROM
JADE Agent
Architecture
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DynaCROM – Current Implemented Architecture
JADE Platform Architecture
Network Host (noteles)
Network Host (CATOJUNIOR)
Network Link
USA hasProtocols:
1- USAProtForPayment
2- USAProtForCalculatingPrice
Colorado hasProtocols:
DynaCROM Answer
1- USAProtForCalculatingPrice
2- ColoradoProtocolForGivingWarranty
3- ColoradoProtForCalculatingPrice
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DynaCROM – Further Work
•
Implement the Meta-Rule Solution
•
Try JADEX to Support Protocol-Based for Agent Decision-Making in Open MAS
 DynaCROM answers will be added to agent beliefs
–
Start enhancing a JADEX implemented example with DynaCROM
–
Implement the TAC-SCM, 2006 example in JADEX with DynaCROM
DynaCROM Answer:
Contextual Information
Network Link
Open MAS
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Open MAS
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Scope
•
Time: it is not treated as continuous  it is slip up into a series of timestamps
•
Agents make decisions moment-to-moment. They choose the most
appropriate action regarding internal and external stimulus, and their goals
•
Agents: reactive
(responding to the immediate laws of a chosen action) X
deliberative (following long-term plans formulated some time in the past)
•
“The human brain has a limited ability to conceptualize complex dynamic
processes”  Environments are simulated fairly close to the real-world
•
Not dealing with:
– Conflicts
(same actions addressed in opposite way by laws)
– Learning Techniques
– Planning systems. Agents follow plans blindly to their ends, after which they will have
arrived at their goal states, and can look again to decide upon another goal and another plan.
In complex environments the number of possible states are of the order of 10100
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Chronogram of Activities
• 2004.2 – 2005.2: Experiments
• 2005.2 – 2006.2: Implementations & Writings
• 2006.2 – 2007.2: Experiments & Implementations
• 2007.2 – 2008.2: Writings
• Continue the TAC SCM-06 Case Study
• Revisit some still Open Questions from REVIEWS
• Write the DynaCROM Paper
• Try LIP6 Solutions (SCAAR, Maleva, Social Actions, …)
• Develop a Case Study from the Disaster Domain
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Questions ?