Dispute Resolution Using Argumentation-Based Mediation
This work addresses automated dispute resolution for negotiating agents, but it appears incremental as it builds on existing argumentation-based negotiation methods.
The paper tackles the problem of automated dispute resolution by developing an argumentation-based mediation approach that extends logic-based argumentation for BDI agents, demonstrating that the computational mediator can handle realistic situations where negotiating agents would otherwise fail due to lack of knowledge or resources.
Mediation is a process, in which both parties agree to resolve their dispute by negotiating over alternative solutions presented by a mediator. In order to construct such solutions, mediation brings more information and knowledge, and, if possible, resources to the negotiation table. The contribution of this paper is the automated mediation machinery which does that. It presents an argumentation-based mediation approach that extends the logic-based approach to argumentation-based negotiation involving BDI agents. The paper describes the mediation algorithm. For comparison it illustrates the method with a case study used in an earlier work. It demonstrates how the computational mediator can deal with realistic situations in which the negotiating agents would otherwise fail due to lack of knowledge and/or resources.