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Automated negotiations

Automated negotiations. The best terms for all concerned Tuomas Sandholm sandhom@cs.wustl.edu. Overview. Automated negotiations Promising application areas Reallocation among agents Optimization Agent-to-agent vs. centrally mediated eMediator: features. Automated negotiations.

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Automated negotiations

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  1. Automated negotiations • The best terms for all concerned • Tuomas Sandholm • sandhom@cs.wustl.edu

  2. Overview • Automated negotiations • Promising application areas • Reallocation among agents • Optimization • Agent-to-agent vs. centrally mediated • eMediator: features

  3. Automated negotiations • Negotiation: key component in e-commerce • Auto: computational agents • Represent real-world parties • Find & prepare contracts • Benefits …

  4. Auto negotiation benefits • Save human negotiation time • Better at finding deals in combinatorially & strategically complex situations • Not at cost to other parties • Rapidly find solutions that optimize for all

  5. Promising application areas • Retail e-commerce • Electricity markets • Bandwidth allocation • Manufacturing planning & scheduling in subcontracting networks • Distributed vehicle routing among independent dispatch centers • Electronic trading of financial instruments

  6. Reallocation among agents • Task reallocation among agents: key type of negotiation • Allocate tasks to agents that handle them least expensively • Marginal cost-based method for automated task reallocation • Reallocate all types of items ….

  7. Items to reallocate • Tasks • Financial instruments • Hours of electricity

  8. Cost-based reallocation • Agent takes task from another as long as it is paid more by other agent than what costs to handle • Agent gives task to another agent as long as it doesn’t have to pay more than it would cost to handle • TRACONET: TRAnsportation Cooperation NET

  9. TRACONET • Automated delivery of task reallocation among freight companies • 1st distributed automated negotiation among self-interested agents • Each agent • Own Unix process • Represents single company

  10. TRACONET (cont.) • Agent takes on delivery tasks • Gives out tasks • Recontract-out tasks previously contracted-in

  11. Optimization • Negotiation can get stuck in local optimization • Task allocation suboptimal • No original contract (O) profitable • To solve: new contract types …

  12. New contract types • C: cluster • Exchange multiple tasks for payment • S: swap task for another + sidepayment • M: multiagent • More than 2 parties in same contract • OCSM …

  13. OCSM … • Combine previous into atomic contract • Guarantee globally optimal allocation • Through finite number of contracts

  14. Agent-to-agent vs. centrally mediated • Original: agent-to-agent • Auction server ==> centrally mediated variant • Agents send bids and tasks • ==> Combinatorial auctions • Allow users to express interrelated valuations of items

  15. eMediator: features • E-commerce server • Also services other than auctions • Combinatorial bidding • Bidding via price-quantity graphs • Mobile agents • Determine winners of combinatorial auction • Identify profitable contacts for all

  16. Optimal winner determination • Computationally complex • ==> Added highly optimized search-based matching algorithm to solve problem

  17. Price-quantity graphs • User can express continuous preferences

  18. Mobile agents • User have agents participate in auctions while users disconnected from Internet • Mobile agents execute on agent dock on or near auction host • ==> Reduce network latency • Key issue in time-critical bidding • Mitsubishi’s Concordia agent dock

  19. Concordia • Give mobile agents safe execution platform • Bid • Set up auctions • Travel to other auction sites • Observe activity at various auctions • More later

  20. HTML interface • Users instruct agents • Automatic generation of Java code for mobile agents before launching

  21. Contract management • Usually: binding • ==> Can’t undo old commitments to accommodate new events • E.g., tasks more costly than anticipated • New offers more lucrative • Alleviate: Leveled commitment contracting protocol …

  22. Leveled commitment contracting protocol • Agents accommodate future events • Option of unilateral decommit • Decommitment penalty

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