TY - JOUR
T1 - Coping with conflict in cooperative knowledge-based systems
AU - Wong, Stephen T.C.
N1 - Funding Information:
Manu:jcript received May 28, 1995; revised December 23, 1995. This work was funded by the NSF Engineering Research Center at Lehigh University: Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems (ATLSS) Center, and ICOT, The Laboratory of Fifth Generation Computer Project of Japan. The author is with the Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco CA 94143-0628 USA (e-mail: swong @ 1ri.ucsf. edu). Publisher Item Identifier S 1083-4427(97)00009-X.
PY - 1997
Y1 - 1997
N2 - Cooperative Problem Solving (CPS) is an important paradigm that will extend the power of current information systems to provide broader, cheaper services and to solve larger, and increasingly, more complex problems. In this paper, we address a critical issue of this new mode of computing: the existence of conflict among distributed agents. In particular, we focus our study on Cooperative Knowledge-Based Systems (CKBS). To obtain a better understanding and more balanced judgement of multiagent conflict, we provide a general scheme to study the logical structure of multiagent conflict and rational strategies of coping with it under different situations. Our research finding is that there is no grand unified theory of coping with conflict in performing complex real-world computer supported tasks. Instead, a library of alternative methods should be considered. We discuss four methods: inquiry, arbitration, persuasion, and accommodation. These methods can be combined in an order appropriate to the application domain such that if one method fails, the system will try the next. We point out merits and shortcomings of these methods and illustrate them using several high-level protocols and application examples from a prototype system, Building Design Network (BDN).
AB - Cooperative Problem Solving (CPS) is an important paradigm that will extend the power of current information systems to provide broader, cheaper services and to solve larger, and increasingly, more complex problems. In this paper, we address a critical issue of this new mode of computing: the existence of conflict among distributed agents. In particular, we focus our study on Cooperative Knowledge-Based Systems (CKBS). To obtain a better understanding and more balanced judgement of multiagent conflict, we provide a general scheme to study the logical structure of multiagent conflict and rational strategies of coping with it under different situations. Our research finding is that there is no grand unified theory of coping with conflict in performing complex real-world computer supported tasks. Instead, a library of alternative methods should be considered. We discuss four methods: inquiry, arbitration, persuasion, and accommodation. These methods can be combined in an order appropriate to the application domain such that if one method fails, the system will try the next. We point out merits and shortcomings of these methods and illustrate them using several high-level protocols and application examples from a prototype system, Building Design Network (BDN).
KW - Collaborative design
KW - Communication protocols
KW - Cooperative problem solving
KW - Knowledge-based systems
KW - Multiagent conflict resolution
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U2 - 10.1109/3468.553225
DO - 10.1109/3468.553225
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0030871539
SN - 1083-4427
VL - 27
SP - 57
EP - 72
JO - IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Part A:Systems and Humans.
JF - IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Part A:Systems and Humans.
IS - 1
ER -