Constraint satisfaction as a tool for modeling and checking feasibility of multiagent commitments

Commitments are being used to specify interactions among autonomous agents in multiagent systems. Various formalizations of commitments have shown their strength in representing and reasoning on multiagent interactions. These formalizations mostly study commitment lifecycles, emphasizing fulfillment of a single commitment. However, when multiple commitments coexist, fulfillment of one commitment may have an effect on the lifecycle of other commitments. Since agents generally participate in more than one commitment at a time, it is important for an agent to determine whether it can honor its commitments. These commitments may be the existing commitments of the agent as well as any prospective commitments that the agent plans to participate in. To address this, we develop the concept of commitment feasibility, i.e., whether it is possible for an agent to fulfill a set of commitments all together. To achieve this we generalize the fulfillment of a single commitment to the feasibility of a set of commitments. We then develop a solid method to determine commitment feasibility. Our method is based on the transformation of feasibility into a constraint satisfaction problem and use of constraint satisfaction techniques to come up with a conclusion. We show soundness and completeness of our method and illustrate its applicability over realistic cases.

[1]  Krzysztof R. Apt,et al.  Principles of constraint programming , 2003 .

[2]  Edmund K. Burke,et al.  The practice and theory of automated timetabling , 2014, Ann. Oper. Res..

[3]  Michael Luck,et al.  Towards a Formalisation of Electronic Contracting Environments , 2009, COIN@AAMAS&AAAI.

[4]  Timothy W. Finin,et al.  A Policy Based Approach to Security for the Semantic Web , 2003, SEMWEB.

[5]  Krzysztof Kuchcinski,et al.  Constraints-driven scheduling and resource assignment , 2003, TODE.

[6]  Jan Treur,et al.  An intelligent agent model with awareness of workflow progress , 2012, Applied Intelligence.

[7]  Fernando Cuartero Gomez,et al.  IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM), 2012 , 2012 .

[8]  Munindar P. Singh,et al.  Amoeba: A methodology for modeling and evolving cross-organizational business processes , 2009, TSEM.

[9]  John Mylopoulos,et al.  Reasoning about agents and protocols via goals and commitments , 2010, AAMAS.

[10]  Jorge Lobo,et al.  Policies for Distributed Systems and Networks , 2001, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[11]  Philippe Baptiste,et al.  A Theoretical and Experimental Comparison of Constraint Propagation Techniques for Disjunctive Scheduling , 1995, IJCAI.

[12]  Alessio Lomuscio,et al.  MCMAS: A Model Checker for the Verification of Multi-Agent Systems , 2009, CAV.

[13]  Munindar P. Singh.  Agent Communication Languages: Rethinking the Principles , 2003, Communication in Multiagent Systems.

[14]  Marco Colombetti,et al.  Operational specification of a commitment-based agent communication language , 2002, AAMAS '02.

[15]  Munindar P. Singh,et al.  Specifying and Verifying Cross-Organizational Business Models: An Agent-Oriented Approach , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Services Computing.

[16]  Malek Mouhoub,et al.  Conditional and composite temporal CSPs , 2010, Applied Intelligence.

[17]  Munindar P. Singh,et al.  Engineering Foreign Exchange Processes via Commitment Protocols , 2007, IEEE International Conference on Services Computing (SCC 2007).

[18]  Andrea Omicini,et al.  Declarative Agent Languages and Technologies III , 2005, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[19]  Jeffrey M. Bradshaw,et al.  KAoS: toward an industrial-strength open agent architecture , 1997 .

[20]  Michael R. Genesereth,et al.  Software agents , 1994, CACM.

[21]  Akin Günay,et al.  PROT OSS : A run time tool for detecting PR ivacy vi O la T ions in O nline S ocial network S , 2012 .

[22]  Munindar P. Singh.  Semantical Considerations on Dialectical and Practical Commitments , 2008, AAAI.

[23]  Pinar Yolum,et al.  Service matchmaking revisited: An approach based on model checking , 2010, J. Web Semant..

[24]  Somayeh Koohborfardhaghighi,et al.  Using structural information for distributed recommendation in a social network , 2012, Applied Intelligence.

[25]  Munindar P. Singh,et al.  Resolving Commitments among Autonomous Agents , 2003, Workshop on Agent Communication Languages.

[26]  Pinar Yolum,et al.  PROTOSS: A Run Time Tool for Detecting Privacy Violations in Online Social Networks , 2012, 2012 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining.

[27]  Paola Mello,et al.  Commitment Tracking via the Reactive Event Calculus , 2009, IJCAI.

[28]  Federico Barber,et al.  A Mixed Closure-CSP Method for Solving Scheduling Problems , 2004, Applied Intelligence.

[29]  Xavier Parent,et al.  Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence Vol.2922). , 2003, ACL 2003.

[30]  Evelina Lamma,et al.  Verifiable agent interaction in abductive logic programming: The SCIFF framework , 2008, TOCL.

[31]  Frank Dignum.  Advances in Agent Communication , 2003, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[32]  Munindar P. Singh,et al.  Formal Trust Model for Multiagent Systems , 2007, IJCAI.

[33]  Cristiano Castelfranchi,et al.  Commitments: From Individual Intentions to Groups and Organizations , 1995, ICMAS.

[34]  Munindar P. Singh,et al.  Flexible protocol specification and execution: applying event calculus planning using commitments , 2002, AAMAS '02.

[35]  P. Samarati,et al.  Access control: principle and practice , 1994, IEEE Communications Magazine.

[36]  Munindar P. Singh.  An ontology for commitments in multiagent systems: , 1999, Artificial Intelligence and Law.

[37]  Sarvapali D. Ramchurn,et al.  Trust in multi-agent systems , 2004, The Knowledge Engineering Review.

[38]  Mohamed Nassim Seghir,et al.  A Lightweight Approach for Loop Summarization , 2011, ATVA.

[39]  Munindar P. Singh,et al.  Checking correctness of business contracts via commitments , 2008, AAMAS.

[40]  Munindar P. Singh,et al.  Commitment-Based Service-Oriented Architecture , 2009, Computer.

[41]  Wamberto Weber Vasconcelos,et al.  OWL-POLAR: A framework for semantic policy representation and reasoning , 2012, J. Web Semant..

[42]  Angelo Montanari,et al.  EFFICIENT TEMPORAL REASONING IN THE CACHED EVENT CALCULUS , 1996, Comput. Intell..

[43]  Emil C. Lupu,et al.  The Ponder Policy Specification Language , 2001, POLICY.

[44]  Munindar P. Singh,et al.  Commitments with regulations: reasoning about safety and control in REGULA , 2011, AAMAS.

[45]  Gordon J. Pace,et al.  CLAN: A Tool for Contract Analysis and Conflict Discovery , 2009, ATVA.

[46]  Gyuri Lajos.  Complete University Modular Timetabling Using Constraint Logic Programming , 1995, PATAT.

[47]  Kwang Mong Sim,et al.  A multiagent brokering protocol for supporting Grid resource discovery , 2012, Applied Intelligence.

[48]  Jamal Bentahar,et al.  On the verification of social commitments and time , 2011, AAMAS.

[49]  Orna Grumberg,et al.  A game-based framework for CTL counterexamples and 3-valued abstraction-refinement , 2007, TOCL.

[50]  Munindar P. Singh,et al.  Representing and Reasoning about Commitments in Business Processes , 2007, AAAI.

[51]  Pinar Yolum,et al.  Detecting Conflicts in Commitments , 2011, DALT.

[52]  Chris N. Potts,et al.  Constraint satisfaction problems: Algorithms and applications , 1999, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[53]  Michael Winikoff,et al.  Enhancing Commitment Machines , 2004, DALT.

[54]  Yannis Smaragdakis,et al.  J-Orchestra: Enhancing Java programs with distribution capabilities , 2009, TSEM.

[55]  John Mylopoulos,et al.  The Semantic Web - ISWC 2003 , 2003, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.