Normative Multi-Agent Systems: NorMAS 2013

Description & Aim

Normative multi-agent systems combine models for multi-agent systems with models for normative systems. Multi-Agent Systems is a computational paradigm for intelligent distributed systems which are viewed as being composed of a set of autonomous and heterogeneous components, called agents, interacting with each other in an environment. Open multi-agent systems are special kinds of multi-agent systems where individual agents may join and leave the system at run-time. The use of normative systems is one of the most promising answers to a major challenge raised by open multi-agent systems: how to make multi-agent systems efficient and effective through normative models. In this regard, the employment of normative models in multi-agent systems has the purpose of controlling and coordinating the behaviour of individual autonomous agents and to support various forms of collaborations. This is precisely done in order to guarantee the achievement of the overall objectives of multi-agent systems in flexible and adaptive way.

Normative multi-agent system (NorMAS) community meets every year to promote an interdisciplinary discussion that connects computer science, logic, and artificial intelligence to social sciences, e.g., law, sociology, psychology, and economics.  Previous NorMAS symposia were co-located in 2005 and 2010 with the AISB conferences, and in 2008 with the DEON conference in Luxembourg. Other editions of NorMAS (in 2007, 2009, and 2012) were organized as Dagstuhl workshops. The primary goal of NorMAS 2013 is to encourage a more focussed interdisciplinary discussion and exchange of ideas by bringing together researchers and practitioners from these different disciplines to discuss their theories, models, and tools that can be utilized in the design and development of normative multi-agent systems. In particular, NorMAS 2013 will explore the relation between multi-agent systems, social choice theory, and different computational and conceptual models of norms. Particular attention will be paid to the mechanism design perspective, where norms can be seen as mechanisms that can align individual goals with the overall system objectives (which are often represented by a social choice function).

Confirmed keynote speakers:

Marco Casari            Rosaria Conte Jaap Hage    Wiebe van der Hoek Munindar Singh Pauline Westerman