Abstract
This paper proposes a new model of communication in multiagent systems according to which the semantics of communication depends on their pragmatics. Since these pragmatics are seen to result from the consequences of communicative actions as these have been empirically observed by a particular agent in the past, the model is radically empirical, consequentialist and constructivist. A formal framework for analysing such evolving semantics is defined, and we present an extensive analysis of several properties of different interaction processes based on our model. Among the main advantages of this model over traditional ACL semantics frameworks is that it allows agents to reason about the effects of their communicative behaviour on the structure of communicative expectations as a whole when making strategic decisions. Also, it leads to a very interesting domain-independent and non-mentalistic notion of conflict.
This work is supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) under contract No. Br 609/11-2. An earlier version of this paper has appeared in [17].
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Austin, J.L.: How to do things with Words. Clarendon Press, Oxford (1962)
Brauer, W., Nickles, M., Rovatsos, M., Weiß, G., Lorentzen, K.F.: Expectation- Oriented Analysis and Design. In: Wooldridge, M.J., Weiß, G., Ciancarini, P. (eds.) AOSE 2001. LNCS, vol. 2222, p. 226. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)
Cohen, P.R., Levesque, H.J.: Communicative actions for artificial agents. In: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems (ICMAS 1995), pp. 65–72 (1995)
Cohen, P.R., Perrault, C.R.: Elements of a Plan-Based Theory of Speech Acts. Cognitive Science 3, 177–212 (1979)
Fornara, N., Colombetti, M.: Operational specification of a commitment-based agent communication language. In: Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2002), pp. 536–542. ACM Press, New York (2002)
Fornara, N., Colombetti, M.: Protocol specification using a commitment-based ACL. In: Dignum, F.P.M. (ed.) ACL 2003. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 2922, pp. 108–127. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
Goffman, E.: Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organisation of Experience. Harper and Row, New York (1974)
Guerin, F., Pitt, J.: Denotational Semantics for Agent Communication Languages. In: Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Autonomous Agents (Agents 2001), pp. 497–504. ACM Press, New York (2001)
Luhmann, N.: Social Systems. Stanford University Press, Palo Alto (1995)
Mallya, U., Yolum, P., Singh, M.: Resolving commitments among autonomous agents. In: Dignum, F.P.M. (ed.) ACL 2003. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 2922, pp. 166–182. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
Mead, G.H.: Mind, Self, and Society. University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1934)
Müller, H.-J., Dieng, R. (eds.): Computational Conflicts – Conflict Modeling for Distributed Intelligent Systems. Springer, Berlin (2000)
Nickles, M., Rovatsos, M., Brauer, W., Weiß, G.: Communication Systems: A Unified Model of Socially Intelligent Systems. In: Fischer, K., Florian, M. (eds.) Socionics: Its Contributions to the Scalability of Complex Social Systems. LNCS (LNAI), Springer, Heidelberg (to appear)
Pitt, J., Mamdani, A.: Designing agent communication languages for multiagent systems. In: Garijo, F.J., Boman, M. (eds.) MAAMAW 1999. LNCS, vol. 1647, pp. 102–114. Springer, Heidelberg (1999)
Pitt, J., Mamdani, A.: A protocol-based semantics for an agent communication language. In: Proceedings of the 16th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, IJCAI 1999 (1999)
Rao, S., Georgeff, M.P.: BDI agents: From theory to practice. In: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems (ICMAS 1995), pp. 312–319 (1995)
Rovatsos, M., Nickles, M., Weiß, G.: Interaction is Meaning: A New Model for Communication in Open Systems. In: Proceedings of the Second International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, AAMAS 2003 (2003)
Rovatsos, M., Weiß, G., Wolf, M.: An Approach to the Analysis and Design of Multiagent Systems based on Interaction Frames. In: Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, AAMAS 2002 (2002)
Singh, M.: A social semantics for agent communication languages. In: Proceedings of the IJCAI Workshop on Agent Communication Languages (2000)
Singh, M.P.: A semantics for speech acts. Annals of Mathematics and AI 8(1-2), 47–71 (1993)
Verdicchio, M., Colombetti, M.: A logical model of social commitment for agent communication. In: Dignum, F.P.M. (ed.) ACL 2003. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 2922, pp. 128–145. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Rovatsos, M., Nickles, M., Weiss, G. (2004). An Empirical Model of Communication in Multiagent Systems. In: Dignum, F. (eds) Advances in Agent Communication. ACL 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 2922. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-24608-4_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-24608-4_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-20769-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-24608-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive