Isem: A Multi-agent System That Simulates Competitive Electronic Marketplaces

摘要

With the increasing importance of electronic commerce across the Internet it is becoming increasingly evident that in a few years the Internet will host a large number of interacting software agents. A vast number of them will be economically motivated, and will negotiate a variety of goods and services. It is therefore important to consider the economic incentives and behaviours of economic software agents, and to use all available means to anticipate their collective interactions. This paper addresses this concern by presenting a multi-agent market simulator designed for analysing agent market strategies based on a complete understanding of buyer and seller behaviours, preference models and pricing algorithms, considering risk preferences. The system includes agents that are capable of increasing their performance with their own experience, by adapting to the market conditions. The results of the negotiations between agents are analysed by data mining algorithms in order to extract rules that give agents feedback to improve their strategies.