Multiagent negotiation based on the principle of leverage

摘要

When there is some degree of difference between two or more people, a negotiation process is required for those people to work out towards a common solution. Therefore, negotiation is done as a conversation between people who want to reach a common point of understanding or an agreement. For instance, negotiation can be done between people bargaining the price of a good, etc. In this paper, we propose a negotiation model between two self-interested agents (Auctioneer and Bidder) bargaining the price of a good. The two agents are so selfish that either of the two agents wants its final offer (counter-offer) imposed to the other agent to be so near its reservation price. To model this situation we create a negotiation protocol based on the law of levers or principle of leverage and the Extended Contract-Net Protocol (ECNP). As both agents are subjected to the time limitation, each agent combines the time-dependent tactics and the law of levers to choose respectively the offer and counteroffer. The negotiation is modeled as a race between two agents whereby one agent wants to reach first the zone of agreement in order to impose its offer/counter-offer to the other agent.