Abstract
The design of robotic systems that are capable of sophisticated social behavior such as cooperation, compromise, negotiation, and altruism, requires more complex mathematical models than are afforded by the classical mechanisms for making value judgments and decisions. A new concept of multi-agent satisficing, defined in terms of relative effectiveness and efficiency, is an alternative to classical optimization-based decision making. Conditional utilities, which take into account the interests of others as well as the self, represent an alternative to the categorical utilities of classical decision theory. A multi-agent utility aggregation structure is developed that avoids the sure subjugation of the interests of any individual to the interests of the group. By expressing a society as a directed acyclic graph, Bayesian network theory is applied to artificial societies. A satisficing social welfare function accounts for the influence relationships among decision-making agents.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arrow KJ (1951) Social choice and individual values. Wiley, New York. 2nd edn 1963
Arrow KJ (1986) Rationality of self and others. In: Hogarth RM, Reder MW (eds) Rational choice. Univ of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 201–215
Balch T (2004) Hierarchic social entropy: An information theoretic measure of robot group diversity. Auton Robots 8(3):209–238
Balch T, Hybinette M (2000) Social potentials for scalable multi-robot formations. In: Proceedings of IEEE international conference on robotics and automation, pp 73–80
Bergson A (1938) A reformulation of certain aspects of welfare economics. Q J Econ 52:310–334
Bestougeff H, Rudnianski M (1998) Games of deterrence and satisficing models applied to business process modeling. In: Proceedings of the 1998 AAAI symposium, 1998, March 23–25, Stanford California, pp. 8–14. Technical Report SS-98-05
Camerer C, Lowenstein G, Rabin M (eds) (2004) Advances in behavorial economics. Princeton Univ Press, Princeton
Cowell RG, Dawid AP, Lauritzen SL, Spiegelhalter DJ (1999) Probabilistic networks and expert systems. Springer, New York
Cozman FG (2000) Credal networks. Artif Intell 120:199–233
de Finetti B (1937) La prévision: ses lois logiques, ses sources subjectives. Ann Inst Henri Poincaré 7:1–68. In: Kyburg HE, Jr, Smokler HE (eds) Translated as ‘Forsight. Its logical laws, its subjective sources’, in Studies in subjective probability, Wiley, New York, 1964, pp 93–158
Debreu G (1959) Theory of value. Yale Univ Press, New Haven
Elster J (ed) (1985) The multiple self. Cambridge Univ Press, Cambridge
Erlandson RF (1981) The satisficing process: A new look. IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybernet 11(11):740–752
Fehr E, Schmidt K (1999) A theory of fairness, competition, and cooperation. Q J Econ 114:817–868
Fishburn PC (1973) The theory of social choice. Princeton Univ Press, Princeton
Friedman M (1961) Price theory. Aldine Press, Chicago
Harsanyi J (1955) Cardinal welfare, individualistic ethics, and interpersonal comparisons of utility. J Polit Econ 63:315
Jensen FV (2001) Bayesian networks and decision graphs. Springer, New York
Kaufman BE (1990) A new theory of satisficing. J Behav Econ 19(1):35–51
Keeney RL, Raiffa H (1993) Decisions with multiple objectives. Cambridge Univ Press, Cambridge. First published by Wiley, 1976
Kemeny J (1955) Fair bets and inductive probabilities. J Symb Log 20(1):263–273
Kim Y (1999) Satisficing and optimality in 2×2 common interest games. Econ Theory 13(2):365–375
Kube CR, Zhang H (1993) Collective robotics: From social insects to robots. Adapt Behav 2(2):189–218
Kube CR, Zhang H (2006) Collective robotic site preparation. Adapt Behav 14:5–19
Mansbridge JJ (ed) (1990) Beyond self-interest. Univ of Chicago Press, Chicago
Margolis H (1990) Dual utilities and rational choice. In: Mansbridge JJ (ed) Beyond self-interest. Univ of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 239–253. Chap 15
Matsuda T (1979) Algebraic properties of satisficing decision criterion. Inf Sci 17:221–237
Matsuda T (1979) Characterization of satisficing decision criterion. Inf Sci 17:131–151
Nash JF (1950) The bargaining problem. Econometrica 18:155–162
Nash JF (1950) Equilibrium points in n-person games. In: Proceedings of the national academy of sciences USA, vol 36, pp 48–49
Palmer FR (1971) Grammar. Harmondsworth Penguin, Harmondsworth
Pazgal A (1997) Satisficing leads to cooperation in mutual interest games. Int J Game Theory 26(4):439–453
Pearl J (1988) Probabilistic reasoning in intelligent systems. Morgan Kaufmann, San Mateo
Radner R (1975) Satisficing. J Math Econ 2:253–262
Raiffa H (1968) Decision analysis. Addison-Wesley, Reading
Ramsey FP (1950) Truth and probability. In: Braithwaite RB (ed) The foundations of mathematics and other logical essays. The Humanities Press, New York
Samuelson PA (1948) Foundations of economic analysis. Harvard Univ Press, Cambridge
Sen AK (1990) Rational fools: A critique of the behavorial foundations of economic theory. In: Mansbridge JJ (ed) Beyond self-interest. Univ of Chicago Press, Chicago. Chap 2
Sen S (ed) (1998) Satisficing models. AAAI Press, San Mateo
Shubik M (1982) Game theory in the social sciences. MIT Press, Cambridge
Shubik MS (2001) Game theory and operations research: Some musings 50 years later. Yale School of Management Working Paper No ES-14, May
Simon HA (1955) A behavioral model of rational choice. Q J Econ 59:99–118
Simon HA (1956) Rational choice and the structure of the environment. Psychol Rev 63(2):129–138
Simon HA (1959) Theories of decision-making in economics and behavorial science. Am Econ Rev XLIX:253–283
Sober E, Wilson DS (1998) Unto others: The evolution and psychology of unselfish behavior. Harvard Univ Press, Cambridge
Steedman I, Krause U (1985) Goethe’s Faust, Arrow’s possibility theorem and the individual decision maker. In: Elster J (ed) The multiple self. Cambridge Univ Press, Cambridge, pp 197–231
Stirling WC (2003) Satisficing games and decision making: With applications to engineering and computer science. Cambridge Univ Press, Cambridge
Stirling WC, Goodrich MA, Packard DJ (2002) Satisficing equilibria: A non-classical approach to games and decisions. Auton Agents Multi-Agent Syst 5:305–328
Takatsu S (1980) Decomposition of satisficing decision problems. Inf Sci 22:139–149
Takatsu S (1981) Latent satisficing decision criterion. Inf Sci 25:145–152
Tversky A, Kahenman D (1986) Rational choice and the framing of decisions. In Hogarth RM, Reder MW (eds) Rational choice. Univ of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 67–94
Werger BB (1999) Cooperation without deliberation: A minimal behavior-based approach to multi-robot teams. Artif Intel 110(2):293–320
Wierzbicki AP (1981) A mathematical basis for satisficing decision making. In: Morse JN (ed) Organizations: Multiple agents with multiple criteria. Springer, New York, pp 465–483
Winter S (1971) Satisficing, selection, and the innovating remnant. Q J Econ 85:237–261
Zilberstein S (1998) Satisficing and bounded optimality. In: Proceedings of the 1998 AAAI symposium, 1998, March 23–25, Stanford, California, pp 91–94. Technical Report SS-98-05
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Stirling, W.C., Nokleby, M.S. Satisficing Coordination and Social Welfare for Robotic Societies. Int J of Soc Robotics 1, 53–69 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-008-0007-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-008-0007-x