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Resolving the Dilemma of Responsibility in Multi-agent Flow Networks

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Advances in Practical Applications of Agents, Multi-Agent Systems, and Cognitive Mimetics. The PAAMS Collection (PAAMS 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 13955))

Abstract

Multi-agent networks often face the “dilemma of responsibility” where optimising for individual utility may result in sub-optimal network-level outcomes. But, imposing constraints on individual agents for obtaining better network-level indicators, may severely impede their utilities and rationale for participating in the network. We address this problem of the conflict between individual utility and collective outcomes, using a decentralised approach called Computational Transcendence (CT) which is based on modelling agents with an elastic sense of self. We discuss how this model can be applied to realistic multi-agent application scenarios. The first scenario is on decision-making in multi-agent supply chains, and the second is on adaptive signalling in a road network. In both these applications, we compare CT with several baseline models and find improvements across multiple application-specific metrics. CT is shown to outperform strategies for individual utility maximisation, by improving network-level indicators in an emergent manner, without posing a high burden of responsibility on individual agents.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore, Bangalore, India

    Jayati Deshmukh, Nikitha Adivi & Srinath Srinivasa

Authors
  1. Jayati Deshmukh
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  2. Nikitha Adivi
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  3. Srinath Srinivasa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jayati Deshmukh .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Lille, Lille, France

    Philippe Mathieu

  2. Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Frank Dignum

  3. Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal

    Paulo Novais

  4. University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

    Fernando De la Prieta

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Deshmukh, J., Adivi, N., Srinivasa, S. (2023). Resolving the Dilemma of Responsibility in Multi-agent Flow Networks. In: Mathieu, P., Dignum, F., Novais, P., De la Prieta, F. (eds) Advances in Practical Applications of Agents, Multi-Agent Systems, and Cognitive Mimetics. The PAAMS Collection. PAAMS 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13955. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37616-0_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37616-0_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-37615-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-37616-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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