Looking for the Best Partners

Domenico Rosaci; Giuseppe M. L. Sarnè

doi:10.1007/978-3-032-22940-3_2

Looking for the Best Partners

Domenico Rosaci, Giuseppe M. L. Sarnè

Viviana Mascardi, Andrea Omicini (eds.)

The Agents Journey: Twenty-Five Years of Multi-agent Systems, chapter 2, pages 52–78

Lecture Notes in Computer Science (State-of-the-Art Survey) 16395

Springer Nature Switzerland

April 2026

Interaction and cooperation among agents are two fundamental activities having place in multi-agent systems. In this regard, in a generally large universe of agents, the main difficulty lies in determining which agents are the most promising candidates for achieving fruitful interaction (i.e., cooperation). In a holistic view, several strategies like trust, reliability, reputation, cyphering or commitment can play, for example, a crucial role in various online environments. They provide a multitude of mechanisms for assessing credibility, trustworthiness, identity and so on, not only with respect to agents but also considering entities such as users, products or services. Agent-based scenarios can take advantage from these techniques, which are also able to reduce information asymmetry between agents, enhancing their mutual confidence and, in this way, encouraging their participation by limiting the probability of deception. Moreover, such systems form the basis for a potentially large number of countermeasures to prevent, depotentiate or nullify malicious activities intended at altering a correct perception about the counterpart by means of misrepresentation or manipulation activities carried out by bad agents. In this context, the goal of this chapter is to provide an overview of the several specific proposals, made at Workshop on Objects and Agents (WOA) over more than two decades, aimed at identifying the best partners for interaction and cooperation based on the above-cited approaches.

keywords Multiagent System, Partnership, Trust, Reputation, Cyphering, Commitment

journal or series

Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS)

container publication

The Agents Journey (edited volume, 2026) — Viviana Mascardi, Andrea Omicini

companion publication

Preface (editorial/introduction/preface, 2026) — Viviana Mascardi, Andrea Omicini

Evolution of Programming Languages in Agent Systems and the Role of Computational Logic (book chapter, 2026) — Alina Vozna, Andrea Monaldini, Stefania Costantini, Giovanni De Gasperis, Pierangelo dell’Acqua, Andrea Formisano, Andrea Rafanelli

Trust Evolution in Agent and Multi-agent Systems: A Computational Modeling Perspective (book chapter, 2026) — Alessandro Sapienza, Filippo Cantucci, Cristiano Castelfranchi, Rino Falcone

Interaction Protocols: From AUML to Social Commitments, from Artifacts to BSPL (book chapter, 2026) — Matteo Baldoni, Cristina Baroglio, Roberto Micalizio

Coordination of Software Agents: Models and Languages (book chapter, 2026) — Giacomo Cabri, Letizia Leonardi, Stefano Mariani, Franco Zambonelli

Self-organisation with Aggregate Computing: A Reflection Under the Lenses of Multi-agent Systems Engineering (book chapter, 2026) — Gianluca Aguzzi, Roberto Casadei, Danilo Pianini, Mirko Viroli

Rethinking Software Agents as Building Blocks of Software Systems (book chapter, 2026) — Federico Bergenti, Stefania Monica

Designing Agent-Oriented Systems (book chapter, 2026) — Massimo Cossentino, Luca Sabatucci, Valeria Seidita

Agent-Based Computing for Science and Engineering: Back to the Future and Beyond... (book chapter, 2026) — Alfredo Garro

Simulation and Agent-Based Simulation at WOA: 25 of Years of Simulation-Related Contributions, and an Outlook of What Awaits Us (book chapter, 2026) — Giuseppe Vizzari, Daniela Briola

25 Years of Declarative Agent Technologies in Italy (book chapter, 2026) — Davide Ancona, Daniela Briola, Angelo Ferrando, Maurizio Martelli, Viviana Mascardi

Intelligent Agents from Symbolic to Neurosymbolic Systems: The Quest for Integration (book chapter, 2026) — Andrea Agiollo, Roberta Calegari, Giovanni Ciatto, Matteo Magnini, Andrea Omicini, Federico Sabbatini

From Objects to Agents, and Back to Smart Objects: Software Agents for Intelligent Internet of Things (IoT) Systems (book chapter, 2026) — Daniel-Costel Bouleanu, Marco Loaiza, Claudio Savaglio, Costin Bădică, Raffaele Gravina, Giancarlo Fortino

AI Infrastructure: From Gigastructure to Edge Intelligence with Multi-Agent Systems (book chapter, 2026) — Andrea Omicini, Alessandro Ricci, Viviana Mascardi

works as

companion publication for