Cooperative, Multistep Negotiation over a Multi-dimensional Utility Function

We present a cooperative, multistep negotiation mechanism for multiagent systems. This mechanism uses marginal utility gain and marginal utility cost to structure the negotiation process. This enables an agent to understand another agent’s situation in order to find a solution that increases their combined utility. These two values summarize the agent’s local information and reduce the communication load. We also introduce a multiple attribute utility theory into negotiations. This allows agents to negotiate over multiple attributes of the commitment which makes it more likely for agents to find a solution that increases the global utility by producing more options.