ANI@REM 2005

Multi-agent systems are often understood as complex entities where a multitude of agents interact, usually with some intended individual or collective purpose. Such a view usually assumes some form of structure, or set of norms or conventions that articulate or restrain interactions in order to make them more effective in attaining those goals, more certain for participants or more predictable. The engineering of effective regulatory mechanisms is a key problem for the design of open complex multi-agent systems, so that in recent years it has become a rich and challenging topic for research and development.

Of the many possible ways of looking at the problem of regulating multi-agent systems, this workshop focuses on a normative approach, based on the use of Norms in Artificial Institutions. Lately there has been an explosion of new approaches, both theoretical and practical, exploring the use of norms as a flexible way to constrain and/or impose behaviour and these are reflected in specifications of norm languages, agent-mediated electronic institutions, contracts, protocols and policies.

The workshop invites specialists from various fields to discuss conceptual, formal and technical aspects that bear upon the formalization, design, construction and deployment of regulated multi-agent systems. The workshop intends to bring together active researchers to present and debate recent developments.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

•  Ontologies, methodologies, tools and standards for regulated MAS  •  Coordination and interaction conventions, technologies and artifacts  •  Languages for Norms: expressiveness VS efficiency  •  Normative and meta-normative concepts, frameworks, and formalisms (consistency, issuance, implementation, verification, enforcement, sanctioning and repair mechanisms...)  •  Architectures for norm-compliant agents  •  Issues in regulatory dynamics (creation, evolution, change, dissapearance)  •  Electronic institutions and virtual organizations  •  Examples of significant regulated environment  •  Issues in regulated MAS implementatio  •  Simulation of norm-regulated MA  •  Social science background for regulated MAS: Roles, authority, motivation, social power and other social relationships and attitudes

We particularly encourage authors to submit innovative and original papers that report on

•  Software frameworks, tools, and methodologies  •  Applications, case studies, and experimental work  •  Formal and theoretical models

Position papers and papers describing ongoing work are welcome as well.