Bilateral Negotiation with Incomplete and Uncertain Information

The paper describes a bilateral negotiation approach with incomplete and uncertain information that has been implemented in the context of a distributed multiagent peer help system, I-Help, supporting students in a university course. Personal agents keep models of student preferences and negotiate on their behalf to acquire resources (help) from other agents. The agents negotiate iteratively using an influence diagram, a decision theoretic tool. To cope with the uncertainty inherent in a dynamic market with self-interested participants, the agents create models of their opponents during negotiation, which help them predict better their opponents’ actions. The evaluation shows the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed negotiation mechanisms.