27, On the Benefits of Exploiting Hierarchical Goals in Bilateral Automated Negotiation

Some thoughts following on from re-reading 'On the Benefits of Exploiting Hierarchical Goals in Bilateral Automated Negotiation' (2007) by Iyad Rahwan et al with my aamas-submitted (not accepted) paper in mind:

• What is presented is a protocol and not a generative model as such.


• The negotiation framework consists of (/is limited to) two agents.


• Agents' preferences over (sets of) resources is specified as a (pre-given) numerical utility function. "Deals" between agents (to reallocate resources) make use of "side payments" based on this utility function.


• The relationship "sub" (linking a goal to "sub" -goals and/or -resources needed to achieve it) seems shared between all agents (though agents have no prior knowledge of each other's main goals or preferences).


• Much in this paper rests on the existence/allowance of "partial plans" (wherein leaf nodes may be goals as well as resources) and the setting of positive interaction between agents' "shared"/"common" goals such that an agent may benefit from a common goal (or sub-goal) achieved by the other agent.