Automated formal analysis of human multi-issue negotiation processes

This paper reports on experiments in (human) multi-issue negotiation and their analysis, and presents a generic software environment supporting such an analysis. First, the paper presents a System for Analysis of Multi-Issue Negotiation (SAMIN). SAMIN was designed to analyse multi-issue negotiation processes between human negotiators, between human and software agents, and between software agents. The agents conduct one-to-one negotiations, in which the values across multiple issues are negotiated on simultaneously. To analyse such negotiation processes, the user can enter any formal property deemed useful into the system and use the system to automatically check this property in given negotiation traces. The paper presents the results of applying SAMIN in the analysis of empirical traces obtained from an experiment in multi-issue negotiation about second hand cars. In the experiment the efforts of 74 humans negotiating against each other have been analysed using SAMIN.

[1]  Mark Klein,et al.  Negotiating Complex Contracts , 2003, AAMAS '02.

[2]  Michael Fisher,et al.  Temporal Development Methods for Agent-Based Systems , 2005 .

[3]  Jeffrey S. Rosenschein,et al.  Rules of Encounter - Designing Conventions for Automated Negotiation among Computers , 1994 .

[4]  Nicholas R. Jennings,et al.  Using similarity criteria to make negotiation trade-offs , 2000, Proceedings Fourth International Conference on MultiAgent Systems.

[5]  Ryszard Kowalczyk,et al.  On Constraint-Based Reasoning in e-Negotiation Agents , 2000, AMEC.

[6]  Nicholas R. Jennings,et al.  Optimal agendas for multi-issue negotiation , 2003, AAMAS '03.

[7]  Nicholas R. Jennings,et al.  Using similarity criteria to make issue trade-offs in automated negotiations , 2002, Artif. Intell..

[8]  Catholijn M. Jonker,et al.  Automated multi-attribute negotiation with efficient use of incomplete preference information , 2004, Proceedings of the Third International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, 2004. AAMAS 2004..

[9]  Tuomas Sandholm,et al.  Distributed rational decision making , 1999 .

[10]  Elaine B. Hyder,et al.  Knowledge Matters: The Effect of Tactical Descriptions on Negotiation Behavior and Outcome , 1996 .

[11]  Jacques L. Koko,et al.  The Art and Science of Negotiation , 2009 .

[12]  Tibor Bosse,et al.  Formalisation of Dynamic Properties of Multi-Issue Negotiation , 2006 .

[13]  Michael Fisher,et al.  Temporal Development Methods for Agent-Based , 2004, Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems.

[14]  Tibor Bosse,et al.  Specification and Verification of Dynamics in Cognitive Agent Models , 2006, 2006 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology.

[15]  Nicholas R. Jennings,et al.  A Classification Scheme for Negotiation in Electronic Commerce , 2001, AgentLink.

[16]  Tibor Bosse,et al.  A Temporal Trace Language for the Formal Analysis of Dynamic Properties , 2005 .

[17]  Catholijn M. Jonker,et al.  Compositional Verification of Multi-Agent Systems: A Formal Analysis of Pro-activeness and Reactiveness , 1997, Int. J. Cooperative Inf. Syst..

[18]  Nicholas R. Jennings,et al.  Negotiation decision functions for autonomous agents , 1998, Robotics Auton. Syst..

[19]  Nicholas R. Jennings,et al.  Optimal Negotiation Strategies for Agents with Incomplete Information , 2001, ATAL.

[20]  Frank Dignum,et al.  Agent-Mediated Electronic Commerce III: Current Issues in Agent-Based Electronic Commerce Systems , 2001 .

[21]  Claudio Bartolini,et al.  AutONA: a system for automated multiple 1-1 negotiation , 2003, EC '03.

[22]  Howard Raiffa.  Lectures on negotiation analysis , 1997 .

[23]  Michael J. Prietula,et al.  Getting to best: efficiency versus optimality in negotiation , 2000, Cogn. Sci..

[24]  Catholijn M. Jonker,et al.  An Agent Architecture for Multi-Attribute Negotiation , 2001, IJCAI.

[25]  Alasdair Urquhart,et al.  Temporal Logic , 1971 .

[26]  Antony Galton,et al.  Operators vs. Arguments: The Ins and Outs of Reification , 2006, Synthese.

[27]  Catholijn M. Jonker,et al.  An agent architecture for multi-attribute negotiation using incomplete preference information , 2007, Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems.

[28]  Matthias Klusch,et al.  Software agent-based applications, platforms and development kits , 2005 .