Dynamically Providing Contextual
Information for Agents in Open MAS
Carolina Howard Felicíssimo
Advisor: Prof. Carlos José Pereira de Lucena
Co-Advisor: Prof. Jean-Pierre Briot
Agenda
• Introduction
• Motivation
• Case Study
• The DynaCIPOM Approach
• Readings
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Introduction
• Multi-Agent Systems (MAS)
– A powerful technology that has emerged as a promising
approach to develop information systems that are composed
of several goal-oriented problem-solving entities (agents)
• Open MAS
– A MAS where agents are able to join and leave it freely
– Key
heterogeneity (different
implementations – agents must be threaten as black-boxes), conflicting
individual goals and limited trust. Moreover, no
centralized control is feasible
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characteristics
are:
agent
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Motivation
Network Link
Open MAS
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Open MAS
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Motivation
Contexts: implicit information used to characterize situations of participants
Contextual Information
Network Link
Open MAS
Open MAS
Context Information: Environment, Organization, Roles and Interaction Protocols*
 Dynamically Provide Refined Protocol Information - a Reason & Effect approach
* Protocol: a set of contextual directives for acting
* Directive: information for providing direction or indication
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Case Study
The Supply Chain Management Game for the 2006 Trading Agent Competition
(TAC SCM-06)
 A Competitive Benchmarking for The Trading Agent Community
•
8 supplier agents / (6) manufacturer
agents / 16 different PC configurations.
•
Each PC model is built from 4
component types: CPU, motherboards,
memories, and hard disks. 10 different
components (Pintel CPUs 2 and 5 GHz; IMD
CPUs 2 and 5 GHz; Pintel and IMD motherboards;
Memories 1 and 2 Gb; Hard Disks 300 and 500
Gb).
•
•
Basic Requirements for the
Manufacturer Agents:
–
Need to know how to place
RFQs and Orders for different
Suppliers
–
Need to know how to read
Offers from different Suppliers
Desired Requirement for the
Manufacturer Agents:
–
© TAC SCM-06
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Choose offers considering
internal stimulus and external
stimulus (e.g., current economic
and politic laws)
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Case Study
Open Agent Platform
Open Agent Platform
supplies
dealWith
Basus Supplier
supplies
Watergate Supplier
dealWith
Pintel Motherboard
supplies
Hard Disk 300 Gb
Open Agent Platform
Open Agent Platform
dealWith
Macrostar Supplier
supplies
Mintor Supplier
dealWith
Open Agent Main Platform
manufactures
PC1
Agent Manufacturer
Open Agent Platform
dealWith
MEC Supplier
Pintel CPU 2.0
supplies
Memory 1 Gb
Open Agent Platform
Pintel Supplier
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supplies
Open Agent Platform
dealWith
dealWith
supplies
Queenmax Supplier
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Case Study
Open Agent Platform
Open Agent Platform
supplies
dealWith
Basus Supplier
supplies
Watergate Supplier
dealWith
IMD Motherboard
supplies
Hard Disk 500 Gb
Open Agent Platform
Open Agent Platform
dealWith
Macrostar Supplier
supplies
Mintor Supplier
dealWith
Open Agent Main Platform
manufactures
PC16
Agent Manufacturer
Open Agent Platform
dealWith
MEC Supplier
IMD CPU 5.0
supplies
Memory 2 Gb
Open Agent Platform
IMD Supplier
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supplies
Open Agent Platform
dealWith
dealWith
supplies
Queenmax Supplier
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Case Study
AMacrostarSupplier
AManufacturer
ABasusSupplier
sendRFQs(IMDMotherboard,50)
sendRFQs(IMDMotherboard,50)
calculatePrice
(IMDMotherboard,50)
Base Price: 80
calculatePrice
(IMDMotherboard,50)
Base Price: 80
Profit: +X%
Profit: +A%
Reputation: -Y%
Reputation: -B%
Offer Price: 4000
Offer Price:3990
sendOffer(4000)
sendOffer(3990)
analyseOffers()
criterion(cheaperPrice)
sendOrder(IMDMotherboard,50)
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Case Study
Contextual Information
Open Agent Platform
Open Agent Platform
supplies
dealWith
Basus Supplier
IMD Motherboard
supplies
dealWith
Missouri
Hiroshima
Open Agent Platform
Open Agent Platform
dealWith
Macrostar Supplier
Colorado
dealWith
supplies
Watergate Supplier
Hard Disk 500 Gb
supplies
Mintor Supplier
Shanghai
Open Agent Main Platform
manufactures
PC16
Agent Manufacturer
California
Beijing
Open Agent Platform
dealWith
MEC Supplier
IMD CPU 5.0
California
supplies
IMD Supplier
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Osaka
Open Agent Platform
Open Agent Platform
dealWith
dealWith
supplies
Memory 2 Gb
supplies
Queenmax Supplier
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Case Study
― Environment Directives for Payments:
1. In USA, all negotiations are paid in American dollars (USD), its national currency.
Negotiations outside USA have to have their values converted from USD to the
national currency of the country where the seller is.
2. In Japan, all negotiations are paid in Yen, its national currency. Negotiations
outside Japan have to have their values converted from Yen to the national
currency of the country where the seller is.
3. In China, all negotiations are paid in Chinese yuan (CNY), its national currency.
Negotiations outside China have to have their values converted from CNY to the
national currency of the country where the seller is.
― Environment Directives for Calculating Prices:
1. In Missouri, a state corporate income tax rate of 6.25 is imposed on all sales.
2. In Colorado, a state corporate income tax rate of 4.63 is imposed on all sales.
3. In Missouri, a three day sales tax holiday occurs, every year, from August 4 to 6.
Orders of computers and computers' components, with the maximum cost of
$3,050, are eligible for tax free during the holiday.  Example that can be
implemented as a Meta-Rule!
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Case Study
― Interaction Directives for Providing Discounts:
1. Basus and IMD offer 15% discount if their products are bought in bundles.
2. Macrostar and Pintel offer 10% discount if their products are bought in bundles.
― Role Directives for Providing Discounts:
1. MEC suppliers can give up to 5% discount.
2. Queenmax suppliers can give up to 8% discount on orders paid in cash.
3. Queenmax suppliers apply duty free discounts for tourists.
― Organization Directives for Providing Warranty:
1. Mintor give a two year limited warranty if a plus tax of 5% is accepted.
2. Watergate give one year limited warranty.
― Organization Directive for Payments of Ship Costs:
1. Mintor pay ship costs when warranty verification detects defective products.
― Organization Directive for Payments:
1. Every placed order for Queenmax have a down payment of 10%.
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Case Study
― Economic Directives for Operating in the Market:
1. Organizations can’t form trusts and monopolies (concentrations of wealth in the
hands of a few).
2. Organizations can’t make price fixing agreements.
3. Organizations can’t form cartels.
4.  (Meta-Rule) Pintel organizations increase 5% of their prices when IMD
organizations are in crisis or goes bankrupt.
― Politic Directives for Operating in the Market:
1. Due to political crisis, American organizations don’t deal anymore with Japanese
organizations.
 (Meta-Rule) Mintor organizations increase 10% of their prices when
Watergate organizations are not operating in the American market.
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DynaCIPOM
An Approach for Dynamic Contextual
Information Provision in Open MAS
Case Study
•
A priori knowledge needed (pre-implemented methods) for the “calculating price” protocol:
calculatePrice(String product, int quantity):int
– requestBasePrice(String product):int
– getBasePrice(String product):int
– requestBasePrice(String product, String mainOrganization):int
– answerBasePrice():int
– calculateCostPrice(int basePrice, int quantity): int
– calculatePriceWithProfit(int currentPrice, int profitPercentage): int
– applyDiscount(int currentPrice, int percentageOfDiscount, String
discountIdentifier)
////(”quantity” or “bundle” or “clientHistory”)
– applyTax(currentPrice):int
– requestIncomeSaleTax():int
– requestCurrencyForPayment():String
– convertPriceValue(int mainOrgLocalCurrency, int orgLocalCurrency):int
– answerPrice(int currentPrice, String currency)
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Case Study
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Case Study
• Macrostart “calculating price” protocol
calculatePrice(String product, int quantity):int
– requestBasePrice(String product):int
– getBasePrice(String product):int
– calculateCostPrice(int basePrice, int quantity): int
– calculatePriceWithProfit(int currentPrice, 20): int
– applyDiscount(int currentPrice, int percentageOfDiscount, ”quantity”)
– applyDiscount(int currentPrice, int percentageOfDiscount, ” bundle”)
– applyTax(currentPrice):int
– requestIncomeSaleTax():int
– answerPrice(int currentPrice, String currency)
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Case Study
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Case Study
•
BasusChina “calculating price” protocol
calculatePrice(String product, int quantity):int
– requestBasePrice(String product):int
– requestBasePrice(String product, String mainOrganization):int
– calculateCostPrice(int basePrice, int quantity): int
– calculatePriceWithProfit(int currentPrice, 18): int
– applyDiscount(int currentPrice, int percentageOfDiscount,
“clientHistory”)
– applyDiscount(int currentPrice, int percentageOfDiscount, “bundle”)
– applyTax(currentPrice):int
– requestIncomeSaleTax():int
– requestCurrencyForPayment():String
– convertPriceValue(int mainOrgLocalCurrency, int orgLocalCurrency):int
– answerPrice(int currentPrice, String currency)
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DynaCIPOM
•
An Approach for Dynamic Contextual Information Provision in Open MAS
• It is based on:
– A Top-Down Contextual Modeling of Protocols
– Environment Protocols
– Organization Protocols
– Role Protocols
– Interaction Protocols
– A Meta-Ontology to Explicitly Represent Contexts
– A Rule Support to Compose and Retrieve Contextual Protocols
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DynaCIPOM
Rule1- [ruleForOrgWithMOrgLaws:
hasNorm(?Org,?MOrgLaws)
<- hasNorm(?MOrg,?MOrgLaws),
hasMainOrganization(?Org,?MOrg)]
Rule2- [ruleForOrgWithEnvLaws
hasNorm(?Org,?OrgEnvLaws)
<- hasNorm(?OrgEnv,?OrgEnvLaws),
isIn(?Org,?OrgEnv)
Rule3- [ruleForOrgWithOEnvOfOrgEnvLaws
hasNorm(?Org,?OEnvOfOrgEnvLaws)
<- hasNorm(?OEnvOfOrgEnv,?OEnvOfOrgEnvLaws),
belongsTo(?OrgEnv,?OEnvOfOrgEnv)
isIn(?Org,?OrgEnv)]
Rule4- [ruleForOrgWithMOrgEnvLaws:
hasNorm(?Org,?MOrgEnvLaws)
<- hasNorm(?MOrgEnv,?MOrgEnvLaws),
isIn(?MOrg,?MOrgEnv)
hasMainOrganization(?Org,?MOrg)]
Rule5- [ruleForOrgWithOEnvOfMOrgEnvLaws:
hasNorm(?Org,?OEnvOfMOrgEnvLaws)
<- hasNorm(?OEnvOfMOrgEnv,?OEnvOfMOrgEnvLaws),
belongsTo(?MOrgEnv,?OEnvOfMOrgEnv)
isIn(?MOrg,?MOrgEnv)
hasMainOrganization(?Org,?MOrg)]
349 customized compositions of contextual
norms can be achieved with only 19 rules
(Environment: 1=1 C1 = 1; Organization: =1
C = 31; Role: =1 C  = 63; Interaction: 2* =1
C  = 254).
Formula: =1 C = 2 - 1
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DynaCIPOM Behavior
DynaCIPOM – Current Implemented Architecture
DynaCIPOM
JADE Agent
Architecture
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DynaCIPOM – Current Implemented Architecture
JADE Platform Architecture
Network Host (noteles)
Network Host (CATOJUNIOR)
Network Link
USA hasProtocols:
1- USAProtForPayment
2- USAProtForCalculatingPrice
Colorado hasProtocols:
DynaCIPOM Answer
1- USAProtForCalculatingPrice
2- ColoradoProtocolForGivingWarranty
3- ColoradoProtForCalculatingPrice
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DynaCIPOM – Further Work
•
Implement the Meta-Rule Solution
•
Try JADEX to Support Protocol-Based for Agent Decision-Making in Open MAS
 DynaCIPOM answers will be added to agent beliefs
–
Start enhancing a JADEX implemented example with DynaCIPOM
–
Implement the TAC-SCM, 2006 example in JADEX with DynaCIPOM
DynaCIPOM Answer:
Contextual Information
Network Link
Open MAS
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Open MAS
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Readings
•
About DynaCIPOM:
–
•
•
Dynamically Providing Contextual Protocol Information for Agents in Open MultiAgent Systems. For the JAAMAS Journal. To appear.
About the DynaCROM Approach:
–
Regulating Open Multi-Agent Systems with DynaCROM. FELICÍSSIMO, Carolina;
LUCENA, Carlos; BRIOT, Jean-Pierre; NOYA, Ricardo. In: Second Workshop on Software
Engineering for Agent-oriented Systems (SEAS, 2006), 2006, Florianopolis.
–
Toward a Normative Ontology for Implementing Contextual Regulations in Open
MAS. FELICÍSSIMO, Carolina; LUCENA, Carlos; BRIOT, Jean Pierre; BREITMAN, Karin;
CASANOVA, Marco; CHOREN, Ricardo. Biblioteca de Informatica da PUC-Rio, 2006 (Monografias
em Ciência da Computação no. 31/06).
–
An Approach for Contextual Regulations in Open MAS. FELICÍSSIMO, Carolina; LUCENA,
Carlos; BRIOT, Jean-Pierre; CHOREN, Ricardo . In: Eight International Bi-Conference Workshop
on AGENT-ORIENTED INFORMATION SYSTEMS at AAMAS-2006 (AOIS-06), 2006, Japan, 2006.
About a Case Study for the DynaCROM Approach:
–
Supporting Regulatory Dynamics in Open MAS. FELICÍSSIMO, Carolina; CHOREN, Ricardo;
BRIOT, Jean-Pierre; LUCENA, Carlos. In: AAMAS06 Workshop on Coordination, Organization,
Institutions and Norms in agent systems (COIN-06), 2006, Japan, 2006.
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Readings
•
•
•
About the DynaCROM Ontology:
–
Normative Ontologies to Define Regulations Over Roles in Open Multi-Agent Systems.
FELICÍSSIMO, Carolina; LUCENA, Carlos; CARVALHO, Gustavo; PAES, Rodrigo. In: AAAI Fall
Symposium Roles, an Interdisciplinary Perspective: Ontologies, Programming Languages, and
Multiagent Systems. 2005, Virginia, Arlington. AAAI Press, 2005. v. 1. p. 68-72.
–
An Approach to Regulate Open Multi-Agent Systems Based On A Generic Normative
Ontology. FELICÍSSIMO, Carolina; LUCENA, Carlos. In: First Workshop on Software
Engineering for Agent-oriented Systems (SEAS 2005), 2005, Uberlândia.
About the DynaCROM Rules:
–
Inferring Contextual Laws with Rules for Regulations in Open Multi-Agent Systems.
FELICÍSSIMO, Carolina; LUCENA, Carlos; BRIOT, Jean Pierre; BREITMAN, Karin; CASANOVA,
Marco; CHOREN, Ricardo. Biblioteca de Informatica da PUC-Rio, 2006 (Monografias em Ciência
da Computação no. 32/06).
–
Automating Regulations in Open Multi-Agent Systems. FELICÍSSIMO, Carolina; LUCENA,
Carlos; BRIOT, Jean-Pierre; BREITMAN, Karin; NOYA, Ricardo. Rio de Janeiro: Assessoria de
Biblioteca, Documentação e Informação. PUC-Rio Departamento de Informática, 2006
(Monografias em Ciência da Computação no. 11/06).
About the DynaCROM First Ideas:
–
Sweetening Regulated Open Multi-Agent Systems with Support for Agents to Reason
about Laws. FELICÍSSIMO, Carolina; LUCENA, Carlos; SARDINHA, José. Rio de Janeiro:
Assessoria de Biblioteca, Documentação e Informação PUC-Rio Departamento de Informática,
2005 (Monografias em Ciência da Computação n 32/05).
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Questions ?