Synthesising Evolutionarily Stable Normative Systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces an evolutionary game theory-based framework for synthesising normative systems in multi-agent environments, ensuring coordination and rational norm adoption, validated through traffic domain simulations.

Contribution

It presents a novel evolutionary approach for synthesising effective and rational normative systems in multi-agent coordination tasks.

Findings

Successfully synthesised norms that promote coordination

Normative systems that agents are likely to adopt

Effective in simulated traffic scenarios

Abstract

Within the area of multi-agent systems, normative systems are a widely used framework for the coordination of interdependent activities. A crucial problem associated with normative systems is that of synthesising norms that effectively accomplish a coordination task and whose compliance forms a rational choice for the agents within the system. In this work, we introduce a framework for the synthesis of normative systems that effectively coordinate a multi-agent system and whose norms are likely to be adopted by rational agents. Our approach roots in evolutionary game theory. Our framework considers multi-agent systems in which evolutionary forces lead successful norms to prosper and spread within the agent population, while unsuccessful norms are discarded. The outputs of this evolutionary norm synthesis process are normative systems whose compliance forms a rational choice for the agents. We empirically show the effectiveness of our approach through empirical evaluation in a simulated traffic domain.