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Combining opinion pooling and evidential updating for multi-agent consensus

Lee, Chanelle; Lawry, Jonathan; Winfield, Alan

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Authors

Chanelle Lee

Jonathan Lawry



Abstract

The evidence available to a multi-agent system can take at least two distinct forms. There can be direct evidence from the environment resulting, for example, from sensor measurements or from running tests or experiments. In addition, agents also gain evidence from other individuals in the population with whom they are interacting. We, therefore, envisage an agent’s beliefs as a probability distribution over a set of hypotheses of interest, which are updated either on the basis of direct evidence using Bayesian updating, or by taking account of the probabilities of other agents using opinion pooling. This paper investigates the relationship between these two processes in a multi-agent setting. We consider a possible Bayesian interpretation of probability pooling and then explore properties for pooling operators governing the extent to which direct evidence is diluted, preserved or amplified by the pooling process. We then use simulation experiments to show that pooling operators can provide a mechanism by which a limited amount of direct evidence can be efficiently propagated through a population of agents so that an appropriate consensus is reached. In particular, we explore the convergence properties of a parameterised family of operators with a range of evidence propagation strengths.

Citation

Lee, C., Lawry, J., & Winfield, A. (2018, July). Combining opinion pooling and evidential updating for multi-agent consensus. Paper presented at Twenty-Seventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-18), Stockholm, Sweden

Presentation Conference Type Conference Paper (unpublished)
Conference Name Twenty-Seventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-18)
Conference Location Stockholm, Sweden
Start Date Jul 13, 2018
End Date Jul 19, 2018
Acceptance Date Apr 16, 2018
Publication Date Jul 13, 2018
Deposit Date Sep 17, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Pages 347-353
ISBN 9780999241127
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/864521
Publisher URL https://www.ijcai.org/proceedings/2018/0048.pdf
Additional Information Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : Proceedings of the Twenty-Seventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-18)

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