Initial steps towards run-time support for norm-governed systems

Abstract

We present a knowledge representation framework with an associated run-time support infrastructure that is able to compute, for the benefit of the members of a norm-governed multi-agent system, the physically possible and permitted actions at each time, as well as sanctions that should be applied to violations of prohibitions. To offer the envisioned run-time support we use an Event Calculus dialect for efficient temporal reasoning. Both the knowledge representation framework and its associated infrastructure are highly configurable in the sense that they can be appropriately distributed in order to support real-time responses to agent requests. To exemplify the ideas, we apply the infrastructure on a benchmark scenario for multi-agent systems. Through experimental evaluation we also show how distributing our infrastructure can provide run-time support to large-scale multi-agent systems regulated by norms. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.