Using and evaluating adaptive agents for electronic commerce negotiation

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2000

Authors

Henrique Lopes Cardoso (Author) FEUP; Eugénio Oliveira (Author) FEUP

Journal

Title: Lecture Notes in Computer Science

Vol. 1952

Pages: 96-105

ISSN: 0302-9743

Publisher: Springer Nature

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 8 Citations

Scopus - 18 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Natural sciences > Computer and information sciences

CORDIS: Technological sciences > Engineering > Computer engineering

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-001-12K

DOI: 10.1007/3-540-44399-1_11

Abstract (EN): Agent technology has been applied to the Electronic Commerce domain, giving birth to what is known as agent-mediated Electronic Commerce. Current real-world applications refer only to the delegation of product or merchant brokering tasks to software agents. Automated negotiation is a less explored stage in this field, since it implies the trust of bargaining power to software agents. We here present SMACE, a layered platform for agent-mediated Electronic Commerce, supporting multilateral and multi-issue automated negotiations. In this system, the negotiation infrastructure through which the software agents interact is independent from their negotiation strategies. SMACE has been used to test several negotiation strategies. The system includes agents that are capable of increasing their performance with their own experience, by adapting to the market conditions. This adaptation is reached through the use of Reinforcement Learning techniques. In order to test the agents' adaptation process, several different experiments have been tried out, and the respective results are here reported. These results allow us to conclude that it is possible to build negotiation strategies that can outperform others in some environments. In fact, knowledge gathered about past negotiations can be a strategic advantage in some scenarios.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 10