A computational model of argumentation schemes for multi-agent systems

TY - JOUR

T1 - A computational model of argumentation schemes for multi-agent systems

AU - Panisson, Alison R.

AU - McBurney, Peter

AU - Bordini, Rafael H.

N1 - Funding Information: The authors dedicate this work to the memory of Professor Douglas Walton. Alison had the pleasure to meet Professor Douglas Walton in person during COMMA 2018. During one of Alison’s presentations during that conference, Professor Walton asked a question, concluding his speech with a compliment, saying that our approach to knowledge representation for argumentation schemes was “elegant”. That was an unforgettable moment for Alison, considering Alison’s great admiration of Walton’s work and as a person. Also, it was that comment (and further discussion during that conference) that motivated us to pursue many of the directions taken in this work. Rafael Bordini and Alison Panisson gratefully acknowledge partial funding from CNPq and CAPES. Publisher Copyright: © 2021-The authors. Published by IOS Press.

PY - 2021/11/24

Y1 - 2021/11/24

N2 - There are many benefits of using argumentation-based techniques in multi-agent systems, as clearly shown in the literature. Such benefits come not only from the expressiveness that argumentation-based techniques bring to agent communication but also from the reasoning and decision-making capabilities under conditions of conflicting and uncertain information that argumentation enables for autonomous agents. When developing multi-agent applications in which argumentation will be used to improve agent communication and reasoning, argumentation schemes (reasoning patterns for argumentation) are useful in addressing the requirements of the application domain in regards to argumentation (e.g., defining the scope in which argumentation will be used by agents in that particular application). In this work, we propose an argumentation framework that takes into account the particular structure of argumentation schemes at its core. This paper formally defines such a framework and experimentally evaluates its implementation for both argumentation-based reasoning and dialogues.

AB - There are many benefits of using argumentation-based techniques in multi-agent systems, as clearly shown in the literature. Such benefits come not only from the expressiveness that argumentation-based techniques bring to agent communication but also from the reasoning and decision-making capabilities under conditions of conflicting and uncertain information that argumentation enables for autonomous agents. When developing multi-agent applications in which argumentation will be used to improve agent communication and reasoning, argumentation schemes (reasoning patterns for argumentation) are useful in addressing the requirements of the application domain in regards to argumentation (e.g., defining the scope in which argumentation will be used by agents in that particular application). In this work, we propose an argumentation framework that takes into account the particular structure of argumentation schemes at its core. This paper formally defines such a framework and experimentally evaluates its implementation for both argumentation-based reasoning and dialogues.

KW - Argumentation

KW - Multi-agent system (MAS)

KW - Argumentation Schemes

KW - Agent-Oriented Programming Languages

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85119408259&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3233/AAC-210555

DO - 10.3233/AAC-210555

M3 - Article

SN - 1946-2166

VL - 12

SP - 357

EP - 395

JO - Argument & Computation

JF - Argument & Computation

IS - 3

ER -