Hierarchical Decision Making in Multi-agent Systems Using Answer Set Programming

We present a multi-agent formalism based on extended answer set programming. The system consists of independent agents connected via a communication channel, where knowledge and beliefs of each agent are represented by a logic program. When presented with an input set of literals from its predecessor, an agent computes its output as an extended answer set of its program enriched with the input, carefully eliminating contradictions that might occur. It turns out that while individual agents are rather simple, the interaction strategy makes the system quite expressive: e.g. the membership problem for a sequence of n agents is P n -complete. This makes the formalism suitable for modelling complex applications of MAS, for example cooperative diagnosis. Furthermore, such systems can be realized by implementing an appropriate control strategy on top of existing solvers such as DLV and SMODELS.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: CLIMA
• Authors: Davy Van Nieuwenborgh, Marina De Vos, Stijn Heymans, Dirk Vermeir
• Keywords: Answer Set Programming, CLIMA 2006, CLIMA 2007, Extended Answer Set, Multi-agent Formalism