Numerical Abstract Persuasion Argumentation for Expressing Concurrent Multi-Agent Negotiations

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel numerical abstract persuasion argumentation framework designed to model and analyze concurrent multi-agent negotiations involving resource sharing, addressing a gap in existing argumentation-based negotiation theories.

Contribution

It develops a new argumentation theory based on abstract persuasion with numerical info and handshake mechanisms, specifically tailored for concurrent multi-agent negotiations.

Findings

The extended theory effectively models concurrent negotiations.

It handles dynamic relations and resource scarcity.

Demonstrates adaptability to complex multi-agent scenarios.

Abstract

A negotiation process by 2 agents e1 and e2 can be interleaved by another negotiation process between, say, e1 and e3. The interleaving may alter the resource allocation assumed at the inception of the first negotiation process. Existing proposals for argumentation-based negotiations have focused primarily on two-agent bilateral negotiations, but scarcely on the concurrency of multi-agent negotiations. To fill the gap, we present a novel argumentation theory, basing its development on abstract persuasion argumentation (which is an abstract argumentation formalism with a dynamic relation). Incorporating into it numerical information and a mechanism of handshakes among members of the dynamic relation, we show that the extended theory adapts well to concurrent multi-agent negotiations over scarce resources.