A Framework for Monitoring Agent-Based Normative Systems

International audienceThe behaviours of autonomous agentsmay deviate fromthose deem-ed to be for the good of the societal systems of which they are apart. Norms have therefore been proposed as a means to regulateagent behaviours in open and dynamic systems, where these normsspecify the obliged, permitted and prohibited behaviours of agents.Regulation can effectively be achieved through use of enforcementmechanisms that result in a net loss of utility for an agent in caseswhere the agent’s behaviour fails to comply with the norms. Recog-nition of compliance is thus crucial for achieving regulation. In thispaper we propose a generic architecture for observation of agentbehaviours, and recognition of these behaviours as constituting,or counting as, compliance or violation. The architecture deploysmonitors that receive inputs from observers, and processes these in-puts together with transition network representations of individualnorms. In this way, monitors determine the fulfillment or violationstatus of norms. The paper also describes a proof of concept im-plementation and deployment of monitors in electronic contractingenvironments