Norm compliance checking

In multi-agent systems, norms are used to regulate agents' behavior so that the objectives of the systems can be realized in a predictable way. Therefore, it is important to check whether agents can comply with the norms imposed on them. However, when norms are interrelated, verification of norm compliance cannot be achieved by checking compliance of each norm separately as done traditionally. To this effect, this extended abstract introduces an approach which first models a set of interrelated norms as Norm Nets, and then map them to Colored Petri Nets (CPNs), by which compliance checking of both individual agents' behavior and the collective behavior of the system can be performed automatically. With CPNs, it is also possible to identify under which conditions the norms can be complied with. Copyright © 2013, International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (www.ifaamas.org). All rights reserved.