Liz Sonenberg | University of Melbourne (original) (raw)

Papers by Liz Sonenberg

Research paper thumbnail of Planned Team Activity

Agents situated in dynamic environments can be supplied in advance with a repertoire of plans tha... more Agents situated in dynamic environments can be supplied in advance with a repertoire of plans that permit them to rapidly generate appropriate sequences of actions in response to important events. When agents can form teams, new problems emerge regarding the representation and execution of joint actions. In this paper we introduce a language for representing joint plans for teams of agents, we describe how agents can organize the formation of a suitably skilled team to achieve a joint goal, and we explain how such a team can execute these plans to generate complex, synchronized team activity. The formalism provides a framework for representing and reasoning about joint actions in which various approaches to co-ordination and commitment can be explored.

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Research paper thumbnail of Social Plans: A Preliminary Report

Page 1. Social Plans: A Preliminary Report January, 1992 Technical Note 24 By: Anand S. Rao Austr... more Page 1. Social Plans: A Preliminary Report January, 1992 Technical Note 24 By: Anand S. Rao Australian Arti cial Intelligence Institute Michael P. George Australian Arti cial Intelligence Institute Elizabeth A. Sonenberg University of Melbourne ...

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Research paper thumbnail of On Argumentation-Based Negotiation

Knowledge Engineering Review, 2003

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Research paper thumbnail of Integrity Constraint Checking in Stratified Databases

The Journal of Logic and Algebraic Programming, 1987

J. LOGIC PROGRAMMING 1987:4:331343 331 INTEGRITY CONSTRAINT CHECKING IN STRATIFIED DATABASES JW L... more J. LOGIC PROGRAMMING 1987:4:331343 331 INTEGRITY CONSTRAINT CHECKING IN STRATIFIED DATABASES JW LLOYD, EA SONENBERG, AND RW TOPOR We prove the correctness of a simplification method for checking static integrity constraints in stratified deductive ...

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Research paper thumbnail of Towards Socially Sophisticated BDI Agents

International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 2000

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Research paper thumbnail of Fixed Point Theorems and Semantics: A Folk Tale

Information Processing Letters, 1982

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Research paper thumbnail of On Social Commitment, Roles and Preferred Goals

We present a framework for modelling various types of influences on an agent's prioritising of it... more We present a framework for modelling various types of influences on an agent's prioritising of its goals, with emphasis on obligations arising from the agent's roles in designated relationships. The framework is based on work of Bell and Huang on goal hierarchies and intention revision, and incorporates notions related to social goal adoption and social commitment as discussed by Castelfranchi. We use roles as an abstraction to enable the agent designer to scope the sphere of influence of one agent with respect to another. Roles then provide a way to specify how the agent should balance competing obligations from different relationships, and from tensions between personal preferences and social obligations. This approach seems to integrate well with the use of team plans for implementing collaborative behaviour

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Research paper thumbnail of From Desires, Obligations and Norms to Goals

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Research paper thumbnail of Towards interest-based negotiation

Group Decision and Negotiation, 2003

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Research paper thumbnail of Towards Dynamic Reorganization of Agent Societies

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Research paper thumbnail of Enhancing Multi-Agent Based Simulation with HumanLike Decision Making Strategies

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Research paper thumbnail of Creating Interactive Characters with BDI Agents

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Research paper thumbnail of Exploring Congruence Between Organizational Structure and Task Performance: A Simulation Approach

Reorganization of the structure of an organization is a crucial issue in multi-agent systems that... more Reorganization of the structure of an organization is a crucial issue in multi-agent systems that operate in an open, dynamic environment. Ideally, autonomous agents must be able to evaluate and decide the most appropriate organization given the environment conditions. That is, there is a need for dynamic reorganization of coordination structures. In this paper, we describe how simulation studies could help to determine whether and how reorganization should take place, and present a simulation scenario that can be used to evaluate the congruence, or fit, between organizational structure and task performance. Preliminary results using a simulation environment illustrate how one can explore triggers for reorganization and compare strategies.

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Research paper thumbnail of Motivational Attitudes of Agents: On Desires, Obligations, and Norms

Many papers about agents mention BDI as a reference logical model for agents, but this model does... more Many papers about agents mention BDI as a reference logical model for agents, but this model does not offer a thorough formal account of the connections between the different modalities of Beliefs, Desires and Intentions. Of course, work such as that of Rao and Georgeff [14] and of Cohen and Levesque [5] has pointed to some specific constraints, but does not offer a complete logical theory that explains all possible connections between, e.g., goals and intentions. Another point of concern often voiced is the long-standing gap between the BDI logical model and practical agent implementations. Judged by its applicability, it might seem that the BDI model is becoming less important, due to the looseness of its connection to practical systems, and because of its failure to guide research into implementation directions in any obviously useful way.

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Research paper thumbnail of Situation Awareness in Intelligent Agents: Foundations for a Theory of Proactive Agent Behavior

... Raymond So, Liz Sonenberg Department of Information Systems The University of Melbourne Melbo... more ... Raymond So, Liz Sonenberg Department of Information Systems The University of Melbourne Melbourne, VIC 3010 Australia w.so2@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au l ... Perhaps the best way to illustrate our view of proactive-ness is to contrast it with the conventional notion of reactiv-ity: ...

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Research paper thumbnail of Case study: an empirical investigation of thumbnail image recognition

The use of thumbnails (i.e., miniatures) in the user-interface of image databases allows searchin... more The use of thumbnails (i.e., miniatures) in the user-interface of image databases allows searching and selection of images without the need for naming policies. Treating parent images prior to reduction with edge-detecting smoothing, lossy image compression, or static codebook compression resulted in thumbnails where the distortion caused by reduction was lessened. An experiment assessing these techniques found resulting thumbnails could be recognised more quickly and accurately than thumbnails of the same parent images that had been reduced without treatment. This pretreatment in thumbnail creation is offered as an improvement.

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Research paper thumbnail of Using interest and transition models to predict visitor locations in museums

Ai Communications, 2008

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Research paper thumbnail of Towards a Theory of Negotiation Strategy

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Research paper thumbnail of Investigating Commitment Flexibility in Multi-Agent Contracts

Reputation and commitment are important issues for automated contracting. Leveled commitment cont... more Reputation and commitment are important issues for automated contracting. Leveled commitment contracts, i.e. contracts where each party can decommit by paying a predetermined penalty, were introduced to allow self interested agents to accommodate events that unfolded since the contract was entered into. Various approaches to modelling reputation have been explored, allowing an agent to make decisions after considering not only current opportunities, but also possible longer term (social) implications of maintaining a reputation for reliability in contract fulfilment. An agent may consider both its own reputation for honesty and the past behaviour of others. We explore a combination of these issues in the context of a simple contracting scenario. Analytical and simulation results are presented.

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Research paper thumbnail of On Interest-Based Negotiation

Chemistry and Physics of Lipids, 2003

Negotiation is essential in settings where computational agents have conflicting interests and a ... more Negotiation is essential in settings where computational agents have conflicting interests and a desire to cooperate. Mechanisms in which agents exchange potential agreements according to various rules of interaction have become very popular in recent years as evident, for example, in the auction and mechanism design community. These can be seen as models of negotiation in which participants focus on their positions. It is argued, however, that if agents focus instead on the interests behind their positions, they may increase the likelihood and quality of an agreement. In order to achieve that, agents need to argue over each others’ goals and beliefs during the process of negotiation. In this paper, we identify concepts that seem essential for supporting this type of dialogue. In particular we investigate the types of arguments agents may exchange about each others’ interests, and we begin an analysis of dialogue moves involving goals.

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Research paper thumbnail of Planned Team Activity

Agents situated in dynamic environments can be supplied in advance with a repertoire of plans tha... more Agents situated in dynamic environments can be supplied in advance with a repertoire of plans that permit them to rapidly generate appropriate sequences of actions in response to important events. When agents can form teams, new problems emerge regarding the representation and execution of joint actions. In this paper we introduce a language for representing joint plans for teams of agents, we describe how agents can organize the formation of a suitably skilled team to achieve a joint goal, and we explain how such a team can execute these plans to generate complex, synchronized team activity. The formalism provides a framework for representing and reasoning about joint actions in which various approaches to co-ordination and commitment can be explored.

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Research paper thumbnail of Social Plans: A Preliminary Report

Page 1. Social Plans: A Preliminary Report January, 1992 Technical Note 24 By: Anand S. Rao Austr... more Page 1. Social Plans: A Preliminary Report January, 1992 Technical Note 24 By: Anand S. Rao Australian Arti cial Intelligence Institute Michael P. George Australian Arti cial Intelligence Institute Elizabeth A. Sonenberg University of Melbourne ...

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Research paper thumbnail of On Argumentation-Based Negotiation

Knowledge Engineering Review, 2003

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Research paper thumbnail of Integrity Constraint Checking in Stratified Databases

The Journal of Logic and Algebraic Programming, 1987

J. LOGIC PROGRAMMING 1987:4:331343 331 INTEGRITY CONSTRAINT CHECKING IN STRATIFIED DATABASES JW L... more J. LOGIC PROGRAMMING 1987:4:331343 331 INTEGRITY CONSTRAINT CHECKING IN STRATIFIED DATABASES JW LLOYD, EA SONENBERG, AND RW TOPOR We prove the correctness of a simplification method for checking static integrity constraints in stratified deductive ...

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Research paper thumbnail of Towards Socially Sophisticated BDI Agents

International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 2000

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Research paper thumbnail of Fixed Point Theorems and Semantics: A Folk Tale

Information Processing Letters, 1982

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Research paper thumbnail of On Social Commitment, Roles and Preferred Goals

We present a framework for modelling various types of influences on an agent's prioritising of it... more We present a framework for modelling various types of influences on an agent's prioritising of its goals, with emphasis on obligations arising from the agent's roles in designated relationships. The framework is based on work of Bell and Huang on goal hierarchies and intention revision, and incorporates notions related to social goal adoption and social commitment as discussed by Castelfranchi. We use roles as an abstraction to enable the agent designer to scope the sphere of influence of one agent with respect to another. Roles then provide a way to specify how the agent should balance competing obligations from different relationships, and from tensions between personal preferences and social obligations. This approach seems to integrate well with the use of team plans for implementing collaborative behaviour

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Research paper thumbnail of From Desires, Obligations and Norms to Goals

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Research paper thumbnail of Towards interest-based negotiation

Group Decision and Negotiation, 2003

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Research paper thumbnail of Towards Dynamic Reorganization of Agent Societies

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Enhancing Multi-Agent Based Simulation with HumanLike Decision Making Strategies

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Creating Interactive Characters with BDI Agents

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Exploring Congruence Between Organizational Structure and Task Performance: A Simulation Approach

Reorganization of the structure of an organization is a crucial issue in multi-agent systems that... more Reorganization of the structure of an organization is a crucial issue in multi-agent systems that operate in an open, dynamic environment. Ideally, autonomous agents must be able to evaluate and decide the most appropriate organization given the environment conditions. That is, there is a need for dynamic reorganization of coordination structures. In this paper, we describe how simulation studies could help to determine whether and how reorganization should take place, and present a simulation scenario that can be used to evaluate the congruence, or fit, between organizational structure and task performance. Preliminary results using a simulation environment illustrate how one can explore triggers for reorganization and compare strategies.

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Research paper thumbnail of Motivational Attitudes of Agents: On Desires, Obligations, and Norms

Many papers about agents mention BDI as a reference logical model for agents, but this model does... more Many papers about agents mention BDI as a reference logical model for agents, but this model does not offer a thorough formal account of the connections between the different modalities of Beliefs, Desires and Intentions. Of course, work such as that of Rao and Georgeff [14] and of Cohen and Levesque [5] has pointed to some specific constraints, but does not offer a complete logical theory that explains all possible connections between, e.g., goals and intentions. Another point of concern often voiced is the long-standing gap between the BDI logical model and practical agent implementations. Judged by its applicability, it might seem that the BDI model is becoming less important, due to the looseness of its connection to practical systems, and because of its failure to guide research into implementation directions in any obviously useful way.

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Research paper thumbnail of Situation Awareness in Intelligent Agents: Foundations for a Theory of Proactive Agent Behavior

... Raymond So, Liz Sonenberg Department of Information Systems The University of Melbourne Melbo... more ... Raymond So, Liz Sonenberg Department of Information Systems The University of Melbourne Melbourne, VIC 3010 Australia w.so2@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au l ... Perhaps the best way to illustrate our view of proactive-ness is to contrast it with the conventional notion of reactiv-ity: ...

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Research paper thumbnail of Case study: an empirical investigation of thumbnail image recognition

The use of thumbnails (i.e., miniatures) in the user-interface of image databases allows searchin... more The use of thumbnails (i.e., miniatures) in the user-interface of image databases allows searching and selection of images without the need for naming policies. Treating parent images prior to reduction with edge-detecting smoothing, lossy image compression, or static codebook compression resulted in thumbnails where the distortion caused by reduction was lessened. An experiment assessing these techniques found resulting thumbnails could be recognised more quickly and accurately than thumbnails of the same parent images that had been reduced without treatment. This pretreatment in thumbnail creation is offered as an improvement.

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Research paper thumbnail of Using interest and transition models to predict visitor locations in museums

Ai Communications, 2008

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Research paper thumbnail of Towards a Theory of Negotiation Strategy

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Research paper thumbnail of Investigating Commitment Flexibility in Multi-Agent Contracts

Reputation and commitment are important issues for automated contracting. Leveled commitment cont... more Reputation and commitment are important issues for automated contracting. Leveled commitment contracts, i.e. contracts where each party can decommit by paying a predetermined penalty, were introduced to allow self interested agents to accommodate events that unfolded since the contract was entered into. Various approaches to modelling reputation have been explored, allowing an agent to make decisions after considering not only current opportunities, but also possible longer term (social) implications of maintaining a reputation for reliability in contract fulfilment. An agent may consider both its own reputation for honesty and the past behaviour of others. We explore a combination of these issues in the context of a simple contracting scenario. Analytical and simulation results are presented.

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Research paper thumbnail of On Interest-Based Negotiation

Chemistry and Physics of Lipids, 2003

Negotiation is essential in settings where computational agents have conflicting interests and a ... more Negotiation is essential in settings where computational agents have conflicting interests and a desire to cooperate. Mechanisms in which agents exchange potential agreements according to various rules of interaction have become very popular in recent years as evident, for example, in the auction and mechanism design community. These can be seen as models of negotiation in which participants focus on their positions. It is argued, however, that if agents focus instead on the interests behind their positions, they may increase the likelihood and quality of an agreement. In order to achieve that, agents need to argue over each others’ goals and beliefs during the process of negotiation. In this paper, we identify concepts that seem essential for supporting this type of dialogue. In particular we investigate the types of arguments agents may exchange about each others’ interests, and we begin an analysis of dialogue moves involving goals.

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