[agents] CFP: ACAN Workshop on "Agent-based Complex Automated Negotiations" @ AAMAS 2017

[Reyhan Aydogan]

*The Tenth International Workshop on Agent-based Complex Automated
Negotiations (ACAN2017)*


To be held in conjunction with the 16th International Joint Conference on
Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS 2017)


http://www.itolab.nitech.ac.jp/ACAN2017/index.html


This workshop will have a special session of Automated Negotiating Agents
Competition (ANAC).


*Important dates*

   - Submission deadline: February 7, 2017
   - Acceptance notification: March 2, 2017
   - Camera-ready deadline: March 17, 2017
   - ACAN2017: May 8 or 9, 2017



*Scope and Background*


Complex Automated Negotiations have been widely studied and are one of the
emerging areas of research in the field of Autonomous Agents and
Multi-Agent Systems. The complexity in an automated negotiation depends on
several factors: the number of negotiated issues, dependencies between
these issues, representation of the utility, negotiation procedural and
protocol, negotiation form (bilateral or multi-party), time constraints
negotiation goals, and so on. Complex automated negotiation scenarios are
concerned with negotiation encounters where we may have for instance, a
large number of agents, a large number of issues with strong
interdependencies, real time constraints, concurrent and interdepended
negotiation, and etc. Many real world negotiation scenarios present one or
more of the mentioned elements. Software agents can support the automation
of complex negotiations, by negotiating on the behalf of their owners and
providing adequate strategies to their owners to achieve realistic, win-win
agreements. In order to provide solutions in such complex automated
negotiation scenarios, research has focused on incorporating different
technologies including search, CSP, graphical utility models, Bayesian
nets, auctions, utility graphs, optimization and predicting and learning
methods. The applications of complex automated negotiations could include
e-commerce tools, decision-making support tools, negotiation support tools,
collaboration tools, as well as knowledge discovery and agent learning
tools.

ACAN2017 will discuss, among others, the following aspects and topics of
such complex automated negotiations within the field of Autonomous Agents
and Multi-Agent Systems, which have distinct relationships with AAMAS main
conference topics:

   - Complex Automated Negotiations Frameworks and Mechanisms.
   - Bilateral and Multilateral Negotiations, High dimension Multi-Issue
   Negotiations, Large Scale Negotiations, Concurrent Negotiations, Multiple
   Negotiations, Sequential Negotiations, Negotiations under Asymmetric
   Information, and so on
   - Prediction of Opponent's Behaviours and Strategies in Negotiations
   - Simulation Models and Platforms for Complex Negotiations
   - Coordination Mechanisms for Complex Negotiations
   - Matchmaking and Brokering Mechanisms
   - 2-Sided Matching
   - Utility and Preference Representations in Negotiations
   - Computational Complexity of Multi-Issue Negotiations
   - Real-life Aspects of Electronic Negotiations
   - Negotiations with Humans, Negotiations in Social Networks etc.
   - Knowledge management in Automated Negotiations.
   - Applications for Automated Negotiations (e.g. cloud computing, smart
   grid, electronic commerce etc.)



A considerable number of researchers in various sub-communities of
autonomous agents and multi-agent systems are actively working on these and
related issues. They are, for instance, being studied in agent
negotiations, multi-issue negotiations, auctions, mechanism design,
electronic commerce, voting, secure protocols, matchmaking and brokering,
argumentation, co-operation mechanisms and distributed optimization. The
goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers from these
communities to learn about each other's approaches to the complex
negotiation problems, encourages the exchange of ideas between the
different areas, and potentially fosters long-term research collaborations
to accelerate progress towards scaling up to larger and more realistic
applications.


*Automated Negotiating Agents Competition (ANAC) Special Session*

>From 2010, ACAN is tightly cooperating with ANAC (Automated Negotiating
Agents Competition). This year, we have an ANAC special session, in which
we plan to explain and discuss the research challenges addressed in ANAC
2017.



Submission

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=acan2017

Submissions should conform to the ACM SIG style

(see http://www.acm.org/publications/article-templates/proceedings-
template.html for more details) and should not be more than 8 pages long
(excluding appendices). The workshop welcomes submissions of original works
relevant to the topics described above. This year, the workshop will accept
submissions of both full papers (maximum 8 pages) and short papers (maximum
4 pages).


*Review Process and Acceptance Standards*

For gathering high quality papers, each paper needs to be reviewed by at
least three PC members or experts in the field. Acceptance standards
include its technical soundness, novelty, impact and readability. The same
publication procedure as our previous workshops, we are planning to publish
a Post-Workshop book for ACAN2017 in Books Series Studies in Computational
Intelligence, by Springer. Also, we will assume that papers accepted should
have full-paper quality with small revisions for special issue in a journal
(International Journal of Multiagent and Grid Systems, Knowledge-Based
Systems journal, Decision Support Systems Journal, and Group Decision and
Negotiation Journal- are some possibilities).





*Contact*

Susel Fernandez

Nagoya Institute of Technology

Email: susel.fernandez[at]uah.es



Katsuhide Fujita

Faculty of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology

Email: katfuji[at]cc.tuat.ac.jp