Service-driven negotiation for autonomous software agents in robotics-oriented multi-agent systems

In this paper we introduce a robotics-oriented negotiation protocol for service-driven autonomous software agents to employ while attempting to reach an agreement. We assume that agents, while acquiring a service in robotic context, reason more about their decisions if they are unable to receive a sufficient feedback from the interacted entity. Therefore, the goal of this protocol is to minimize agents' reasoning time by widening the often applied approach of alternating sequential offers. This protocol plays part of a robotics-oriented negotiation model that consists of three layers. These layers are: the negotiation protocol agents apply while performing service-driven interactions, the tactics agents employ to plan their unions, and the strategies they adopt to maximize their benefits. However, here we focus only on the first layer.