A computational model for organizations of cooperating intelligent agents

Abstract

A computational model is developed, which captures properties of relationship and organization in sets of distributed intelligent agents. The model is inspired by sociological theory, and uses centrally a concept of commitment. Symbolic interactionist concepts in sociology are reviewed from the perspective of Distributed Artificial Intelligence. This includes the work of Anselm Strauss and Elihu Gerson. A formulation of the concept of commitment is proposed. The concept is propagated into notions of agent and organization. A formulation and computational model of the basic notion of commitment is given, which represents commitments as mutually agreed constraints on action, belief and world state. The issues of agent integrity, plans and resources, and their representation, are then discussed, and computational mechanisms defined. An organization is defined as a set of agents with consistent mutual commitments. A mechanism is defined to check and enforce the consistency of these commitments.