Norms-Adaptable Agents for Open Multi-Agent Systems

Abstract

Norms and normative multi-agent systems have become the subjects of interest for many researchers. Such interest is caused by the need for agents to exploit the norms in enhancing their performance in a community. In open agent systems, an agent is not usually and explicitly given the norms of the host agents. Thus, when it is not able to adapt the communities' norms, it is totally deprived of accessing resources and services from the host. Such circumstance severely affects its performance resulting in failure to achieve its goal. While several studies have addressed this issue, their detection mechanisms are restricted to the use of sanctions by third party enforcement. Consequently, this study attempts to overcome this deficiency by proposing a technique that enables an agent to detect the host's potential norms via self-enforcement and update its norms even in the absence of sanctions from a third-party. The technique is called the Potential Norms Detection Technique (PNDT).