Synchronous Agents, Verification, and Blame -- A Deontic View

TL;DR

This paper introduces a formal deontic logic framework for analyzing synchronous multi-agent systems, enabling verification of collaboration, blame assignment for violations, and quantification of reparations needed to correct violations.

Contribution

It develops a novel deontic logic with trace semantics and automaton-based model checking for blame analysis in multi-agent systems.

Findings

Automaton construction facilitates model checking and blame analysis.

Quantitative semantics compare interactions based on reparations.

Framework captures obligations, permissions, prohibitions, and reparations.

Abstract

A question we can ask of multi-agent systems is whether the agents' collective interaction satisfies particular goals or specifications, which can be either individual or collective. When a collaborative goal is not reached, or a specification is violated, a pertinent question is whether any agent is to blame. This paper considers a two-agent synchronous setting and a formal language to specify when agents' collaboration is required. We take a deontic approach and use obligations, permissions, and prohibitions to capture notions of non-interference between agents. We also handle reparations, allowing violations to be corrected or compensated. We give trace semantics to our logic, and use it to define blame assignment for violations. We give an automaton construction for the logic, which we use as the base for model checking and blame analysis. We also further provide quantitative semantics that is able to compare different interactions in terms of the required reparations.