On the Checking of Indirect Normative Conflicts

In open multi-agent systems, norms are being used to regulate the behavior of the autonomous, heterogeneous and independently designed agents. Norms describe the behavior that can be performed, that must be performed, and that cannot be performed in the system. One of the main challenges on developing normative systems is that norms may conflict with each other. Two norms are in conflict when the fulfilment of one norm violates the other and vice-versa. The majority works that deal with the checking of normative conflicts are not able to detect conflicts that depend on how the entities are related and how the actions are connected. They are only able to detect conflicts when the two norms regulate the same behavior executed by the same entity. In this paper, we present an approach able to check for conflicts between norms that regulate the execution of different, but related action. We describe four relationships that relate the actions of a domain and present an algorithm for the checking of indirect conflicts, i.e., conflicts between norms that do not govern the behavior of the same entity and/or that do not regulate the same action. Keywords—norm; conflict; relationship; actions