Patrice Caire

New York University | NYU

In multi-agent systems, agents often need to cooperate and form coalitions to fulfil their goals, for example by carrying out certain actions together or by sharing their resources. In such situations, some questions that may arise are: Which agent(s) to cooperate with? What are the potential coalitions in which agents can achieve their goals? As t...

In multiagent systems, agents often have to rely on other agents to reach their goals, for example when they lack a needed resource or do not have the capability to perform a required action. Agents therefore need to cooperate. Then, some of the questions raised are: Which agent(s) to cooperate with? What are the potential coalitions in which agent...

Future homes will contain Mobile Service Robots (MSR) with diverse functionality. MSRs act in close proximity to humans and have the physical capabilities to cause serious harm to their environment. Furthermore, they have sensors that gather large amounts of data, which might contain sensitive information. A mobile service robot’s physical capabili...

This is the qualification document for the new team, and first team of Luxembourg, called “Luxembourg United”. This is also the team’s first attempt to qualify for a RoboCup competition. First, a general description of the Luxembourg United team is presented, along with its members and the equipment owned by the team. Second, the mixed team option...

Today, privacy is a key concept. It is also one which is rapidly evolving with technological advances, and there is no consensus on a single definition for it. In fact, the concept of privacy has been defined in many different ways, ranging from the “right to be left alone” to being a “commodity” that can be bought and sold. In the same time, power...

Nowadays many organizations experience security incidents due to unau-thorized access to information. To reduce the risk of such incidents, security policies are often employed to regulate access to information. Such policies, however, are often too restrictive, and users do not have the rights necessary to perform assigned duties. As a consequence...

In multiagent systems, agents often have to rely on other agents to reach their goals, for example when they lack a needed resource or do not have the capability to perform a required action. Agents therefore need to cooperate. Some of the questions then raised, such as, which agent to cooperate with, are addressed in the field of coalition formati...

We introduce a new methodology to systematically com-pute all possible coalitions among the robots of a multirobot system using the model and algorithms of Multi-Context Systems (MCS).

A common feature of many distributed systems, including web social networks, peer-to-peer systems and Ambient Intelligence systems, is cooperation in terms of information exchange among heterogeneous entities. In order to facilitate the exchange of information, we first need ways to evaluate it. The concept of conviviality was recently proposed for...

Information exchange among heterogenous entities is common in most distributed systems. To facilitate information exchange, we first need ways to evaluate it. The concept of conviviality was recently introduced to model and measure cooperation among agents. In this paper, we use conviviality to model and measure information dependencies in distribu...

In this paper we show how to argue about agreements based on dependence. First, we introduce a formal theory of arguing about agreements by instantiating Dung's abstract theory of argumentation with proposals for agreements represented as dependence networks. Second, we show that acceptable agreements are exchange based--satisfying the so-called do...

In this paper we present R-CoRe; a rule-based contextual reasoning platform for Ambient Intelligence environments. R-CoRe integrates Contextual Defeasible Logic (CDL) and Kevoree, a component-based software platform for Dynamically Adaptive Systems. Previously, we explained how this integration enables to overcome several reasoning and technical is...

The success of requirements engineering depends critically on effective communication between business analysts and end users, yet empirical studies show that business stakeholders understand RE notations very poorly. This paper proposes a novel approach to designing RE visual notations that actively involves naïve users in the process. We use i*,...

The special characteristics and requirements of intelligent environments impose several challenges to the reasoning processes of Ambient Intelligence systems. Such systems must enable heterogeneous entities operating in open and dynamic environments to collectively reason with imperfect context information. Previously we introduced Contextual Defea...

Multi-Context Systems is a rule-based representation model for distributed, heterogeneous knowledge agents, which cooperate by sharing parts of their local knowledge through a set of bridge rules also known as mappings. The concept of conviviality was recently proposed for modeling and measuring cooperation among agents in multiagent systems. In th...

Multi-Context Systems (MCS) are rule-based representation models for distributed, heterogeneous knowledge sources, called contexts, such as ambient intelligence devices and agents. Contexts interact with each other through the sharing of their local knowledge, or parts thereof, using so-called bridge rules to enable the cooperation among different...

The Internet of Things allows people and objects to seamlessly interact, crossing the bridge between real and virtual worlds. Newly created spaces are heterogeneous; social relations naturally extend to smart objects. Conviviality has recently been introduced as a social science concept for ambient intelligent systems to highlight soft qualitative...

With the pervasive development of sociotechnical systems, such as Facebook, Twitter and digital cities, modelling and reasoning on social settings has acquired great significance. Hence, an independent soft objective of system design is to facilitate interactions. Conviviality has been introduced as a social science concept for multiagent systems t...

[Context and motivation] i* is one of the most popular modelling languages in Requirements Engineering. i* models are meant to support communication between technical and non-technical stakeholders about the goals of the future system. Recent research has established that the effectiveness of model-mediated communication heavily depends on the visu...

Modern information systems are characterized by the distribution of information and services among several autonomous heterogeneous entities. A major requirement for the success of such systems is that participating entities cooperate by sharing parts of their local knowledge. This paper presents a novel approach for modeling and enhancing cooperat...

Conviviality has been introduced as a social science concept for multiagent systems to highlight soft qualitative requirements like user friendliness of systems. In this paper we introduce formal conviviality measures for dependence networks using a coalitional game theoretic framework, which we contrast with more traditional efficiency and stabili...

In agents systems, conviviality measures quantify interdependence in social dependence relations, rep-resenting the degree in which the system facilitates social interactions. Moreover, a normative system is a mechanism to change conviviality by changing social dependencies, for example by creating new obligations. With the pervasive development of...

In this paper we discuss the use of the social concept 'conviviality' for computer science in general, and for the development of ambient technologies in particular. First, we give a survey of the use of the concept 'conviviality' in the social sciences. Conviviality is usually considered a positive concept related to sociability. However, further...

While conviviality has simultaneously been defined in the literature as individual freedom realised in personal interdependence, rational and cooperative behaviour and normative instrument, no model has yet been proposed for computer science. In this article, we raise the question of how to import the concept of conviviality to web communities. Fir...

Conviviality is a mechanism to reinforce social cohesion and a tool to reduce mis-coordination between individuals, groups and institutions in web communities, for example in digital cities. We use a two-fold definition of conviviality as a condition for social interactions and an instru- ment for the internal regulation of social systems. In this...

In this paper, we introduce an agent communication protocol and speech acts for norm negotiation. The protocol creates individual or contractual obligations to fulfill goals of the agents based on the so-called social delegation cycle. First, agents communicate their individual goals and powers. Second, they propose social goals which can be accept...

We show how to use TROPOS as a design methodology for convivial multi-agent systems. We introduce temporal dependence networks to measure the evolution of conviviality over time, and we compare them to dynamic dependence networks introduced for conviviality masks and internal dynamics.

In this paper, we consider the design of convivial multiagent systems. Conviviality has recently been proposed as a social concept to develop multi-agent systems. In this paper we introduce temporal dependence networks to model the evolution of dependence networks and conviviality over time, we introduce epistemic dependence networks to combine the...

In this paper we study tools for conviviality to develop user-friendly multiagent systems. First, we show how to use the social-cognitive concept of conviviality in multiagent system technology by relating it to agent power and social dependence networks. Second, we define conviviality masks as transformations of social dependencies by hiding power...

Concepts, models and theories from the social sciences are studied in multi-agent systems to regulate or control interactions among agents. Examples of social concepts studied in multi-agent systems are societies, coalitions, organizations, institutions, norms, power, and trust [4]. We argue in our thesis that this list should be extended with a so...

Conviviality is usually considered a positive concept re-lated to sociability, however, further analysis reveals a negative side related to regulations. In this survey paper, we examine the multi-faceted concept of conviviality and raise the question: Which defi-nition of conviviality can be used and made operational for ambient intelligence? We pr...

Conviviality is a mechanism to reinforce social cohesion and a tool to reduce mis-coordination between individuals, groups and institutions in web communities, for example in digital cities. We use a two-fold definition of conviviality as a condition for social interactions and an instrument for the internal regulation of social systems. In this pa...

Conviviality is usually considered a positive concept however, as it becomes an instrument at the service of power relations, a darker side emerges. In this survey paper we raise the question: Which definition of conviviality can be used and operationalized for digital cities? We propose a two-fold definition of conviviality as (1) a condition for...

In this paper we study tools for conviviality to develop user-friendly multiagent systems. First, we show how to use the social-cognitive concept of conviviality in multiagent system technology by relating it to agent power and social dependence networks. Second, we de- fine conviviality masks as transformations of social dependencies by hiding pow...

In this paper, we consider the design of convivial multi-agent systems. Conviviality has recently been proposed as a social concept to develop multi-agent systems. In this paper we introduce temporal dependence networks to model the evolution of dependence networks and conviviality over time, we introduce epistemic dependence networks to combine th...