Argumentation Schemes and Enthymemes in Multi-agent Systems

Communication is one of the most important aspects of multi-agent systems. Recently, argumentation-based approaches have stood out among other communication techniques in multi-agent systems, receiving special interest from the community, given that such approaches provide an expressive form of communication allowing agents to justify their positions. However, the use of argumentation techniques can be limiting, given that the additional information exchanged by agents can overburden the communication infrastructure. Concerned about this issue, we have been working on an argumentation framework whereby agents are able to exchange fewer and shorter messages when engaging in dialogues. This is done by omitting information that is known to be common knowledge (e.g., information about a shared multi-agent organisation). In our framework, agents exchange enthymemes instead of the intended arguments, the enthymemes make reference to shared argumentation schemes (i.e., reasoning patterns from which the intended arguments were instantiated), and common organisational knowledge is used to guide argument reconstruction.