Title: Decision making with hybrid models: the case of collective and individual motivations

Authors: Paulo Trigo, Helder Coelho

Addresses: Departamento de Engenharia da Electronica e Telecomunicacoes e de Computadores, Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa Rua Conselheiro Emidio Navarro, 1 1959-007, Lisboa, Portugal. ' Departamento de Informatica, Faculdade de Ciencias, Universidade de Lisboa, Bloco c6, Piso 3 (06), Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal

Abstract: In the aftermath of a large-scale disaster, agents| decisions range from individual (e.g., survival) to collective (e.g., victims| rescue or fire extinction) attitudes, thus shaping a 2-strata decision model. However, current decision-theoretic models are either purely individual or purely collective and find it difficult to deal with motivational attitudes. On the other hand, mental-state based models find it difficult to deal with uncertainty. We describe two hybrid decision models: 1) the collective |versus| individual (CvI), which integrates both strata quantitative evaluation of decision making; 2) the CvI-JI which extends the CvI model, using the joint-intentions formulation of teamwork, to deal with collective mental-state motivational attitudes. Both models are evaluated from an experimental, case study-based, outlook that explores the tradeoff between cost reduction and loss of optimality while learning coordination skills in a partially observable stochastic domain.

Keywords: multi-agent systems; MAS; distributed decision making; hierarchical decision making; mental state based reasoning; uncertainty; hierarchical reinforcement learning; collective rationality; individual rationality; agent-based systems; decision theory; teamwork; coordination skills; large-scale disasters; disaster aftermath; emergency management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRIS.2010.029815

International Journal of Reasoning-based Intelligent Systems, 2010 Vol.2 No.1, pp.60 - 72

Published online: 02 Dec 2009 *

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