Using expressive dialogues and gradient information to improve trade-offs in bilateral negotiations

Abstract

A bilateral negotiation may be seen as an interaction between two parties with the goal of reaching an agreement over a given range of issues which usually involves solving a conflict of interests between the parties involved. In our previous work, we address the problem of automatic bilateral negotiation by using fuzzy constraints as a mean to express participant's preferences, focusing in purchase negotiation scenarios. Other research works have used similarity criteria to perform trade-offs in bilateral bargaining scenarios, without any expressive mechanisms between participants. In this paper, we combine our expressive approach with the traditional positional bargaining schema. In particular, we explore the possibility of using the derivatives of each agent's valuation function to issue direction requests to narrow the solution search space of its counterpart, thus improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the negotiation over traditional positional approaches. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008.