Argumentation in Multi-Agent Systems: 4th International Workshop, ArgMAS 2007, Honolulu, HI, USA, May 15, 2007, Revised Selected and Invited Papers

243 Pages·2008·3.48 MB·English

by  Leila Amgoud

Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 4946
EditedbyJ.G.CarbonellandJ.Siekmann
Subseries of Lecture Notes in Computer Science
IyadRahwan SimonParsons ChrisReed(Eds.)
Argumentation
in Multi-Agent
Systems
4th International Workshop, ArgMAS 2007
Honolulu, HI, USA, May 15, 2007
Revised Selected and Invited Papers
1 3
SeriesEditors
JaimeG.Carbonell,CarnegieMellonUniversity,Pittsburgh,PA,USA
JörgSiekmann,UniversityofSaarland,Saarbrücken,Germany
VolumeEditors
IyadRahwan
BritishUniversityinDubai,FacultyofInformatics
P.O.Box502216,Dubai,UAE
E-mail:[email protected]
SimonParsons
CityUniversityofNewYork,BrooklynCollege
DepartmentofComputerandInformationScience
2900BedfordAvenue,Brooklyn,NY11210,USA
E-mail:[email protected]
ChrisReed
UniversityofDundee,DepartmentofAppliedComputing
DundeeDD14HN,UK
E-mail:[email protected]
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2008923358
CRSubjectClassification(1998):I.2.11,I.2,C.2.4,H.5.2-3
LNCSSublibrary:SL7–ArtificialIntelligence
ISSN 0302-9743
ISBN-10 3-540-78914-6SpringerBerlinHeidelbergNewYork
ISBN-13 978-3-540-78914-7SpringerBerlinHeidelbergNewYork
Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.Allrightsarereserved,whetherthewholeorpartofthematerialis
concerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,re-useofillustrations,recitation,broadcasting,
reproductiononmicrofilmsorinanyotherway,andstorageindatabanks.Duplicationofthispublication
orpartsthereofispermittedonlyundertheprovisionsoftheGermanCopyrightLawofSeptember9,1965,
initscurrentversion,andpermissionforusemustalwaysbeobtainedfromSpringer.Violationsareliable
toprosecutionundertheGermanCopyrightLaw.
SpringerisapartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia
springer.com
©Springer-VerlagBerlinHeidelberg2008
PrintedinGermany
Typesetting:Camera-readybyauthor,dataconversionbyScientificPublishingServices,Chennai,India
Printedonacid-freepaper SPIN:12249947 06/3180 543210
Preface
This volume presents the latest developments in the growing area of research
at the interface of argumentationtheory and multiagent systems. This area has
grown tremendously with many papers appearing in the recent special issue of
the Artificial Intelligence Journal on “Argumentation” and the special issue of
IEEE Intelligent Systems on “Argumentation Technologies.”
Over the last few years, argumentation has been gaining increasing impor-
tance in multiagent systems, mainly as a vehicle for facilitating rational inter-
action(i.e.,interactionwhich involvesthe givingandreceivingofreasons).This
is because argumentation provides tools for designing, implementing, and ana-
lyzing sophisticated forms of interaction among rational agents. Argumentation
hasmadesolidcontributionstothepracticeofmultiagentdialogues.Application
domains include: legal disputes, business negotiation, labor disputes, team for-
mation, scientific inquiry, deliberative democracy, ontology reconciliation, risk
analysis, scheduling, and logistics. A single agent may also use argumentation
techniquestoperformitsindividualreasoningbecauseitneedstomakedecisions
under complex preferences policies, in a highly dynamic environment.
Most papers in this volume appeared in the proceedings of the 4th Inter-
national Workshop on Argumentation in Multiagent Systems (ArgMAS 2007),
which took place in Honolulu, USA, in conjunction with the InternationalJoint
Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS). This
continues the success of the ArgMAS workshop series, which took place in tan-
demwithAAMASinNewYorkin2004,Utrechtin2005,andHakodatein2006.
Often we have invited papers on the topic of argumentation in multiagent
systems from the main AAMAS conference as well as other major conferences
for the givenyear,inorderto bringtogether the verybest ofthe year’sworkon
argumentationinMASintoasinglevolume.Thistime,weinvitedrevisedpapers
on argumentation in MAS from both AAMAS 2007 and AAAI 2007. These
additional contributions were selected on the basis of their scientific quality
and relevance to the topics emphasized here. Our objective has been to offer a
comprehensiveandup-to-dateoverviewofthisrapidlyevolvinglandscape,aswe
did in the previous volumes of this series which were all published by Springer
(LNAI 3366, LNAI 4049, and LNAI 4766).
Thebookisorganizedintothreeparts,eachaddressinganimportantproblem
inargumentationandmultiagentsystems.PartI focuses onissuespertaining to
dialogue. This part opens with an invited paper from AAMAS 2007 by Leila
Amgoud,YannisDimopoulos,andPavlosMoraitis.Thispaperattemptsto gen-
eralize and unify various models of argument-based negotiation (ABN) found
in the literature. The second paper, by Iyad Rahwan, Philippe Pasquier, Liz
Sonenberg, and Frank Dignum, formally explores some intuitions behind the
usefulness of ABN models. Most work on argumentation addresses two-party
dialogues.To address dialogues involving more than two agents, in an agent so-
VI Preface
ciety, Enrico Oliva, Peter McBurney, and Andrea Omicini present a framework
based on the notion of co-argumentationartifact.
The fourth paper in Part I is an invited paper by Simon Parsons, Peter
McBurney,Elizabeth Sklar,and MichaelWooldridge,whichaddressesthe ques-
tion of relevance in dialogues. The authors show how relevance can help agents
decide which arguments to present (i.e., how to carry out a dialogue according
to a given protocol). The following paper, by Laurent Perrussel, Sylvie Doutre,
Jean-MarcTh´evenin,andPeterMcBurney,presentsaprotocolthatallowsagents
to argue about the right to access information in a given context.
Recently, an argument interchange format (AIF) has been proposed by the
“argumentation in AI” community. However, while the AIF is quite mature in
its representationofstaticargumentstructures,its abilityto captureargument-
baseddialoguesisstillunderdeveloped.PartIconcludeswithapaperbySanjay
Modgil and Jarred McGinnis that addresses this issue.
PartIIfocusesonusingargumentationtoautomateorsupportvarioussingle-
agent reasoning tasks. This part opens with an invited AAAI 2007 paper by
Nicola´s D. Rotstein, Alejandro J. Garc´ıa, and Guillermo R. Simari. This paper
describeshowargumentationcanbeusedtomechanizereasoninginbeliefdesire
intention (BDI) agents.In a multiagent system, such BDI agents are faced with
possiblyconflictingsocialnorms.Toaddressthe conflictbetweennorms,beliefs,
desires, and intentions, the following paper, by Dorian Gaertner and Francesca
Toni, presents a framework grounded in assumption-based argumentation.
In the third paper in this part, Maxime Morge presents a framework for
practical reasoning based on argumentation. Part II then closes with a paper,
by Ca´ssia Trojahn, Paulo Quaresma, Renata Vieira, on using argumentationas
a model for mapping multiple conflicting ontologies.
Part III addresses an exciting new area in argumentation research, namely,
the relationship between models of argumentation and models of learning. The
section opens with an invited paper from AAMAS 2007, by Leila Amgoud and
Mathieu Serrurier, on using argumentation to perform classification tasks nor-
mally found in the machine learning literature. This is followedby another AA-
MAS2007invitedpaper,bySantiOntan˜o´nandEnricPlaza,whichexploresthe
use of argumentation to facilitate dialogue among cased-based reasoning agents
who want to learn jointly from past cases. This part is wrapped up by two pa-
pers by Wataru Makiguchi and Hajime Sawamura on the relationship between
symbolic and neural network-based models of argumentation.
We conclude this preface by extending our gratitude to the members of the
Steering Committee and members of the Program Committee, who together
helped make the ArgMAS workshop a success. We also thank the authors for
theirenthusiasmtosubmitpaperstotheworkshop,andforrevisingtheirpapers
on time for inclusion in this book.
December 2007 Iyad Rahwan
Simon Parsons
Chris Reed
Organization
Program Chairs
Simon Parsons City University of New York, USA
Iyad Rahwan British University in Dubai, UAE
(Fellow) University of Edinburgh, UK
Chris Reed University of Dundee, UK
ArgMAS Steering Committee
Antonis Kakas University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Nicolas Maudet Universit´e Paris Dauphine, France
Peter McBurney University of Liverpool, UK
Pavlos Moraitis Paris Descartes University, France
Simon Parsons City University of New York, USA
Iyad Rahwan British University in Dubai, UAE
(Fellow) University of Edinburgh, UK
Chris Reed University of Dundee, UK
Program Committee
Leila Amgoud IRIT, France
Katie Atkinson University of Liverpool, UK
Jamal Bentahar Laval University, Canada
Guido Boella Universita` di Torino, Italy
Brahim Chaib-draa Laval University, Canada
Carlos Chesnevar Universitat de Lleida, Spain
Frank Dignum Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Rogier van Eijk Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Frank Guerin University of Aberdeen, UK
Joris Hulstijn Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Anthony Hunter University College, London, UK
Antonis Kakas University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Nikos Karacapilidis University of Patras, Greece
Nishan Karunatillake University of Southampton, UK
Nicolas Maudet Universit´e Paris Dauphine, France
Peter McBurney University of Liverpool, UK
Jarred McGinnis Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
Sanjay Modgil Cancer Research UK
Pavlos Moraitis Paris Descartes University, France
VIII Organization
Bernard Moulin Laval University, Canada
Søren Holbech Nielsen Aalborg University, Denmark
Tim Norman University of Aberdeen, UK
Nir Oren University of Aberdeen, UK
Fabio Paglieri ISTC-CNR, Rome, Italy
Xavier Parent King’s College, UK
Simon Parsons City University of New York, USA
Philippe Pasquier University of Melbourne, Australia
Enric Plaza Spanish Scientific Research Council, Spain
Henri Prade IRIT, Toulouse, France
Henry Prakken Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Alun Preece University of Aberdeen, UK
Iyad Rahwan British University in Dubai, UAE
(Fellow) University of Edinburgh, UK
Sarvapali Ramchurn University of Southampton, UK
Chris Reed University of Dundee, UK
Michael Rovatsos University of Edinburgh, UK
Hajime Sawamura Niigata University, Japan
Sandip Sen University of Tulsa, USA
Guillermo Simari Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina
Elizabeth Sklar City University of New York, USA
Katia Sycara Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Francesca Toni Imperial College, London, UK
Leon van der Torre University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Paolo Torroni Universita` di Bologna, Italy
Bart Verheij Maastricht University, The Netherlands
Gerard Vreeswijk Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Doug Walton University of Winnipeg, Canada
Simon Wells University of Dundee, UK
Steven Willmott Universitat Polit´ecnica de Catalunya, Spain
Mike Wooldridge University of Liverpool, UK
Table of Contents
Part I: Argumentation and Dialogue
A General Framework for Argumentation-Based Negotiation........... 1
Leila Amgoud, Yannis Dimopoulos, and Pavlos Moraitis
OntheBenefitsofExploitingHierarchicalGoalsinBilateralAutomated
Negotiation ..................................................... 18
Iyad Rahwan, Philippe Pasquier, Liz Sonenberg, and Frank Dignum
Co-argumentationArtifact for Agent Societies ....................... 31
Enrico Oliva, Peter McBurney, and Andrea Omicini
On the Relevance of Utterances in Formal Inter-agent Dialogues ....... 47
Simon Parsons, Peter McBurney, Elizabeth Sklar, and
Michael Wooldridge
A PersuasionDialog for Gaining Access to Information ............... 63
Laurent Perrussel, Sylvie Doutre, Jean-Marc Th´evenin, and
Peter McBurney
Towards Characterising Argumentation Based Dialogue in the
Argument Interchange Format..................................... 80
Sanjay Modgil and Jarred McGinnis
Part II: Argument-Based Reasoning
Preferences and Assumption-Based Argumentation for Conflict-Free
Normative Agents................................................ 94
Dorian Gaertner and Francesca Toni
TheHedgehogandtheFox:AnArgumentation-BasedDecisionSupport
System ......................................................... 114
Maxime Morge
An Extended Value-Based Argumentation Framework for Ontology
Mapping with Confidence Degrees.................................. 132
Ca´ssia Trojahn, Paulo Quaresma, and Renata Vieira
Defeasible Argumentation Support for an Extended BDI
Architecture..................................................... 145
Nicola´s D. Rotstein, Alejandro J. Garc´ıa, and Guillermo R. Simari
X Table of Contents
Part III: Argumentation and Learning
Arguing and Explaining Classifications ............................. 164
Leila Amgoud and Mathieu Serrurier
An Argumentation-Based Framework for Deliberation in Multi-agent
Systems ........................................................ 178
Santi Ontan˜´on and Enric Plaza
A Hybrid Argumentation of Symbolic and Neural Net Argumentation
(Part I)......................................................... 197
Wataru Makiguchi and Hajime Sawamura
A Hybrid Argumentation of Symbolic and Neural Net Argumentation
(Part II) ........................................................ 216
Wataru Makiguchi and Hajime Sawamura
Author Index.................................................. 235
A General Framework for Argumentation-Based
Negotiation
Leila Amgoud1, Yannis Dimopoulos2, and Pavlos Moraitis3
1 IRIT– CNRS,118, route de Narbonne,31062 Toulouse, France
[email protected]
2 University of Cyprus, 75 Kallipoleos Str. PO Box 20537, Cyprus
[email protected]
3 Paris-Descartes University,45 rue des Saints-Peres, 75270 Paris, France
[email protected]
Abstract. This paper proposes a unified and general framework for
argumentation-based negotiation, in which the role of argumentation is
formally analyzed. The framework makes it possible to study the out-
comes of an argumentation-based negotiation. It shows what an agree-
ment is,howitisrelatedtothetheoriesoftheagents,whenitispossible,
and how this can be attained by the negotiating agents in this case. It
defines also the notion of concession, and shows in which situation an
agent will make one, as well as how it influences the evolution of the
dialogue.
Keywords: Argumentation, Negotiation.
1 Introduction
Roughly speaking, negotiation is a process aiming at finding some compromise
or consensus between two or several agents about some matters of collective
agreement,suchaspricingproducts,allocatingresources,orchoosingcandidates.
Negotiationmodelshavebeenproposedforthedesignofsystemsabletobargain
in an optimal way with other agents for example, buying or selling products in
e-commerce.
Different approaches to automated negotiation have been investigated, in-
cluding game-theoretic approaches (which usually assume complete informa-
tion and unlimited computation capabilities) [11], heuristic-based approaches
whichtrytocopewiththeselimitations[6],andargumentation-based approaches
[2,3,7,8,9,12,13]whichemphasizethe importanceofexchanginginformationand
explanations between negotiating agents in order to mutually influence their
behaviors (e.g. an agent may concede a goal having a small priority), and con-
sequently the outcome of the dialogue.Indeed, the two first types of settings do
notallowfortheadditionofinformationorforexchangingopinionsaboutoffers.
Integratingargumentationtheoryinnegotiationprovidesa goodmeansforsup-
plying additional information and also helps agents to convince each other by
adequate arguments during a negotiation dialogue. Indeed, an offer supported
I.Rahwan,S.Parsons,andC.Reed(Eds.):ArgMAS2007,LNAI4946,pp.1–17,2008.
(cid:2)c Springer-VerlagBerlinHeidelberg2008