Reciprocal negotiation over shared resources in agent societies

We are interested in domains where an agent repeatedly negotiates with other agents over shared resources where the demand or utility to the agent for the shared resources vary over time. We propose a protocol that will maximize social welfare if agents reveal their true preferences in every negotiation. The protocol, however, is not truth-revealing and selfish agents have the incentive to artificially inflate preferences. We use a probabilistic reciprocative behavior that discourages the reporting of false preferences. This reciprocative behavior promotes cooperation in repeated negotiations and improves both individual and group longterm payoff. We characterize environmental conditions under which agents can develop and sustain mutually beneficial relationships with similar agents and avoid exploitation by different types of selfish agents. Categories and Subject Descriptors I.2.11 [Artificial Intelligence]: Distributed Artificial Intelligence—Multiagent systems General T...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: ATAL
• Authors: Sabyasachi Saha, Sandip Sen
• Keywords: ATAL 2007, Reciprocative Behavior, Selfish Agents, Shared Resources