Argumentation-based dialogues for task reallocation among rational agents

Abstract

Argumentation appears in two main lines of research in the field of multi-agent systems: argumentation-based reasoning and argumentation-based dialogues. In this document we present an approach exploring both of those lines of research. First, we develop an argumentation-based reasoning mechanism in an agent-oriented programming language based on the BDI architecture. This reasoning mechanism is based on a defeasible logic formalism and the notion of defeasible semantics. Using that argumentation-based reasoning mechanism, agents can reason under uncertainty and can use arguments to supports their claims when engaging in multi-agent dialogues. Second, we give operational semantics to a set of speech acts found in the literature on argumentation-based dialogues. That semantics is also given in the context ofBDI-inspired agentorlented programming languages. Next, we define a protocol for argumentation-based dialogues for task reallocation, using the reasoning mechanism and the operational semantics. We prove that the protocol terminates and that it can reach ideal solutions under certain assumptions. Finally, we descrlbe an application domain used as case study, and we evaluate our work with some examples of real problems from that application scenario.