EASSS-09 Course on Coalitional Games

Tutorial at the 11th European Agent Systems Summer School (EASSS 2009)
Torino, Italy, 31st August - 4th September, 2009.

Abstract: Over the last decade, coalition formation has received increased attention in the multiagent systems community: forming dynamic coalitions may lead to more efficient agent societies. Game theory prescribes ways to share a payoff obtained by a coalition in a stable manner, but it does not describe how to form efficient coalitions. Representing coalitional games, and reasoning with such representations are other key issues. In the first part of the course, our first goal is to introduce the basic solution concepts from game theory. Then, we discuss the challenges of coalition formation in the context of multiagent systems: communication, dynamic environments, uncertainty about knowledge or tasks, protocols and manipulation, etc. We survey proposed solutions to these issues, and finally we discuss the problem of searching for efficient coalition structures. The focus of the second part is descriptive. We introduce some modal logics of strategic ability, and show how abilities of coalitions can be specified in that language. Finally, we discuss the algorithmic side of checking such specifications. The course requires some elementary knowledge of logic and game theory. Familiarity with basic modal logic will be an advantage.

Lecturers:

Outline and slides: The first part of the tutorial covers the basic stability property of coalitional games, and some issues in multiagent systems. The second part, taught by Wojtek Jamroga presents the use of logics to reason about what a coalition can achieve.