Inconsistency in multi-agent systems

Abstract

Multi-agent systems are distributed problem solving systems involving multiple collaborating intelligent agents that are capable of interacting with their environments. Toward the goal of developing multi-agent systems of bounded rationality, an important issue is how to manage and handle inconsistent or conflicting knowledge and information an agent may possess or has to reason with. The focus of this paper is on inconsistency in multi-agent systems. We describe the occurrence of inconsistency in the depth of knowledge, define nine different types of inconsistent phenomena, and discuss possible ways to utilize inconsistency as useful heuristics toward developing multi-agent systems of bounded rationality. The main contribution is that we shed some new light on inconsistency in multi-agent systems. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.