Concurrent multi-agent systems with temporal logic objectives: Game theoretic analysis and planning through negotiation

Abstract

This study examines equilibrium behaviour and negotiation protocol design for a class of systems composed of multiple, non-cooperative, agents. The agents modelled as finite-state transition systems, are autonomous, and are interacting 'concurrently' aiming at achieving individual tasks specified in temporal logic. Each agent has its own preferences over outcomes of its interaction with others. The agents' goals and preferences are neither perfectly aligned nor necessarily opposing. The authors reason about agent behaviours in such a system, by formulating a concurrent multi-agent game with infinitely many stages. To enable the synthesis of strategies, they develop a negotiation protocol which ensures that under a proper design of preferences and tasks, the mutually accepted plan is a Pareto optimal pure Nash equilibrium.