Belief Revision in Multi-Agent Systems

摘要

The ability to respond sensibly to changing and conflicting beliefsis an integral part of intelligent agency. To this end, we outline the design andimplementation of a Distributed Assumption-based Truth Maintenance System(DATMS) appropriate for controlling cooperative problem solving in adynamic real world multi-agent community. Our DATMS works on the principleof local coherence which means that different agents can have differentperspectives on the same fact provided that these stances are appropriatelyjustified. The belief revision algorithm is presented, the meta-level codeneeded to ensure that all system-wide queries can be uniquely answered isdescribed, and the DATMS’ implementation in a general purpose multi-agentshell is discussed.