Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2010-08-30"
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- Bilateral negotiation in a multi-agent supply chain systemPublication . Lopes, Fernando; Coelho, HelderA supply chain is a set of organizations directly linked by flows of services from suppliers to customers. Supply chain activities range from the ordering and receipt of raw materials to the production and distribution of finished goods. Supply chain management is the integration of key activities across a supply chain for the purposes of building competitive infrastructures, synchronizing supply with demand, and leveraging worldwide logistics. This paper addresses the challenges created by supply chain management towards improving long-term performance of companies. It presents a multi-agent supply chain system composed of multiple software agents, each responsible for one or more supply chain activities, and each interacting with other agents in the execution of their responsibilities. Additionally, this paper presents the key features of a negotiation model for software agents. The model handles bilateral multi-issue negotiation and incorporates an alternating offers protocol, a set of logrolling strategies, and a set of negotiation tactics.
- Concession behaviour in automated negotiationPublication . Lopes, Fernando; Coelho, HelderTraditional negotiation, conducted face-to-face and via mail or telephone, is often difficult to manage, prone to misunderstanding, and time consuming. Automated negotiation promises a higher level of process efficiency, and more importantly, a faster emergence and a higher quality of agreements. The potential monetary impact has led to an increasing demand for systems composed of software agents representing individuals or organizations and capable of reaching efficient agreements. At present, work on automated negotiation has generated many useful ideas and concepts leading to important theories and systems. Yet, the design of software agents with negotiation competence largely lacks systematic, traceable, and reproducible approaches, and thus remains more an art than a science. Against this background, this paper presents a model for software agents that handles two-party and multi-issue negotiation. The model incorporates various concession strategies and negotiation tactics. Concession strategies are computationally tractable functions that define the tactics to be used both at the outset and throughout negotiation. Tactics, in turn, are functions that specify the short-term moves to be made at each point of negotiation.