Title
Constraint Relaxation Approach for Over-Constrained Agent Interaction
Abstract
The interactions among agents in a multi-agent system for coordinating a distributed, problem solving task can be complex, as the distinct sub-problems of the individual agents are interdependent. A distributed protocol provides the necessary framework for specifying these interactions. In a model of interactions where the agents' social norms are expressed as the message passing behaviours associated with roles, the dependencies among agents can be specified as constraints. The constraints are associated with roles to be adopted by agents as dictated by the protocol. These constraints are commonly handled using a conventional constraint solving system that only allows two satisfactory states to be achieved --- completely satisfied or failed. Agent interactions then become brittle as the occurrence of an over-constrained state can cause the interaction between agents to break prematurely, even though the interacting agents could, in principle, reach an agreement. Assuming that the agents are capable of relaxing their individual constraints to reach a common goal, the main issue addressed by this research work is how the agents could communicate and coordinate the constraint relaxation process. The interaction mechanism for this is obtained by reinterpreting a technique borrowed from the constraint satisfaction field (i.e. distributed partial Constraint Satisfaction Problem), deployed and computed at the protocol level.
Year
DOI
Venue
2008
10.1007/978-3-540-89197-0_61
PRICAI
Keywords
Field
DocType
protocol level,constraint relaxation approach,common goal,interaction mechanism,over-constrained agent interaction,multi-agent system,individual constraint,conventional constraint,constraint relaxation process,constraint satisfaction field,individual agent,agent interaction,message passing,social norm,satisfiability,constraint satisfaction,multi agent system,constraint satisfaction problem
Constraint satisfaction,Mathematical optimization,Local consistency,Computer science,Constraint (mathematics),Constraint satisfaction problem,Constraint satisfaction dual problem,Constraint learning,Constraint logic programming,Message passing,Distributed computing
Conference
Volume
ISSN
Citations 
5351
0302-9743
1
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.36
9
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Mohd. Fadzil Hassan13912.59
Dave Robertson251.43