Open Issues for Normative Multi-Agent Systems

Abstract

A challenging problem currently addressed in the multi-agent systems area is the development of open systems; which are characterized by the heterogeneity of their participants and the dynamic features of both their participants and their environment. The main feature of agents in these systems is autonomy. It is this autonomy that requires regulation, and norms are a solution for this. Norms represent a tool for achieving coordination and cooperation among the members of a society. They have been employed in the field of Artificial Intelligence as a formal specification of deontic statements aimed at regulating the actions of software agents and the interactions among them. This article gives an overview of the most relevant works on norms for multi-agent systems. This review considers open multi-agent systems challenges and points out the main open questions that remain in norm representation, reasoning, creation, and implementation. © 2011 IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.