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Reasoning about knowledge, belief and certainty in hierarchical multi-agent systems

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Abstract

Multi-agent systems (MAS) have received extensive studies in the last decade. However, little attention is paid to investigation on reasoning about logics in MAS with hierarchical structures. This paper proposes a complete quantified temporal KBC (knowledge, belief and certainty) logic and corresponding reasoning in hierarchical multi-agent systems (HMAS). The key point is that internal beliefs and certainty, and external belief and certainty are considered in our logic. The internal beliefs and certainty show every agent is autonomous, while the external belief and certainty indicate the mutual influence of mental attitudes between two different agents on different layers in HMAS. To interpret this logic, we propose four classes of corresponding quantified interpreted systems, and define first-order KBC axiomatisations over HMAS, which are sound and complete with respect to the corresponding semantical classes. Finally, we give a case study to show the advantages in terms of expressiveness of our logic.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61370072, 61073033 and 61170028), Promotion Program for Young and Middle-aged Teacher in Science and Technology Research of Huaqiao University (ZQN-YX109), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in Fujian Province University (2013FJ-NCET-ZR03) and the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China (2015J01255).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610074, China

    Lijun Wu, Yabiao Han & Jingyu Chen

  2. Network Space Security Center, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610074, China

    Lijun Wu

  3. Institute for Integrated and Intelligent Systems, Griffith University, Brisbane, 4000, Australia

    Kaile Su

  4. College of Computer Science and Technology, Huaqiao University, Xiamen, 361000, China

    Xiangyu Lu

Authors
  1. Lijun Wu
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  2. Kaile Su
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  3. Yabiao Han
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  4. Jingyu Chen
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  5. Xiangyu Lu
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Correspondence to Lijun Wu.

Additional information

Lijun Wu is a professor and PhD supervisor of University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, China. His main research interests include formal methods and artificial intelligence.

Kaile Su is a professor of Griffith University, Australia. His main research interests include formal methods and artificial intelligence.

Yabiao Han is a graduate student of University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, China. His main research interests include formal methods and artificial intelligence.

Jingyu Chen is a graduate student of University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, China. His main research interests include formal methods and artificial intelligence.

Xiangyu Lu is an associate professor of Huaqiao University, China. His main research interests include formal methods and artificial intelligence.

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Wu, L., Su, K., Han, Y. et al. Reasoning about knowledge, belief and certainty in hierarchical multi-agent systems. Front. Comput. Sci. 11, 499–510 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11704-016-5100-y

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