Automated negotiation simulation in the risk of not fulfilling agreements

Abstract

Automated negotiation is a technology that searches for agreeable conclusions where agents with different interests and objectives negotiate with each other. The purpose of this technology is to substitute or support human-to-human negotiation. Conventional automated negotiation models assume that all negotiators are sure to fulfill their agreements if they reached agreements at the end of the negotiation. In our society, however, it's often uncertain whether the agreements will be fulfilled. To solve this, we propose a negotiation model in which agents are not necessarily certain to fulfill the agreements. Furthermore, we propose a meta-strategy that changes the negotiation strategy according to the observed results of the other party's non-performance. Simulation results show that the proposed meta-strategy obtained higher utility values than the Boulware (Conceder) strategy. From this research, we can say that it's important to choose negotiation strategy in consideration of the previously observed performance results of other agents.