6.1, Argumentation-Based Negotiation (Intro)

Notes take from Argumentation-Based Negotiation (2003), by Iyad Rahwan et al.

“… the frameworks reviewed in this article represent different preliminary attempts at solving parts of the puzzle by:
(i) constructing generic models of ABN (Sierra et al., 1998);
(ii) constructing limited, yet implementable systems, and studying their applicability (Kraus et al. 1998, Sadri et al. 2001);
(iii) studying the applicability of particular logic-based argumentation frameworks to ABN (Parson et al. 1998, Amgoud et al. 2000);
(iv) studying the properties of different decision making components and concepts such as trust in controlled settings (Ramchurn et al 2003);
(v) studying the different types of influences that can be attempted by participants in an ABN dialogue (Rahwan et al. 2003).”

“In this article we aim at setting up a research agenda for argumentation-based negotiation (ABN) in multi-agent systems. We do so by achieving the following…”
- Identifying the main research motivations and ambitions behind work in the field, and setting up a research agenda for ABN in multi-agent systems.
- Discussing the characteristics of traditional approaches and demonstrating why they fail in particular circumstances due to their underlying assumptions.
- Identifying the main features of ABN approaches, the main components of an abstract framework for ABN, and discussing the different attempts to realise these components.
- Providing a conceptual framework through which we outline the core elements and features required by agents engaged in ABN, as well as the environment that hosts these agents.
- Discussing, in detail, the essential elements of ABN frameworks and the agents that operate within these frameworks. In particular, constructing a conceptual model of ABN, involving external elements (namely, the communication and domain languages, the negotiation protocol, and the information stores) and agent-internal elements (namely, the ability to evaluate, generate, and select proposals and arguments).
- Surveying, evaluating and presenting existing work and proposed techniques (for each of the required elements) in the literature.
- Identifying and highlighting the major challenges encountered in the field, and opportunities that remain (and need to be) addressed if ABN research is to reach its full potential.

The article is structured as follows:
- Reviewing the different approaches to automated negotiation and outlining the contexts in which we believe argumentation-based approaches would be most useful (Section 2).
- Describing, in detail, the elements of an argumentation-based framework that are external to the agents, namely the communication and domain languages, the negotiation protocol, and various information stores (Section 3).
- Discussing the various internal elements and functionalities necessary to enable an agent to conduct ABN. More precisely, the process of argument and proposal evaluation, argument and proposal generation, and argument selection (Section 4).
- Summarising the landscape of existing frameworks (Section 5).
- Stating conclusions and summarising the major challenges (Section 6).

1, Introduction
An agent is viewed as an encapsulated computer system that is situated in an environment and is capable of flexible, autonomous action in order to meet its design objectives…

Negotiation is a form of interaction in which a group of agents, with conflicting interests and a desire to cooperate, try to come to a mutually acceptable agreement on the division on scarce resources.

Resources (taken in the broadest possible sense) can be commodities, services, time, money, etc. In short, anything that is needed to achieve something.

Argumentation-based approaches allow for more sophisticated forms of interaction than their game-theoretic and heuristic counterparts. This raises a number of research challenges related to both the design of the interaction environment as well as the agents participating in that interaction.