Delegations and Trust

One of the fundamental notions in a multiagent system is that of delegation. Delegation forms the foundation for cooperation and collaboration among the members of a multiagent system. In diverse environments such as those formed by open multiagent systems, the various members constituting the environment are customarily alien to one another. Delegation decisions in such environments are necessarily of a nontrivial nature owing to the fact that there is a lack of strong basis on which such a decision can be predicated. Trust is a primary social notion providing a foundation for dealing with disparateness in virtual societies. Trust facilitates de-alienation of the otherwise mutually unfamiliar components of a virtual society. This work investigates and alleviates the problems associated with delegations in multiagent systems by using delegation decisions predicated on trust.