Hermes: Supporting Argumentative Discourse in Multi-Agent Decision Making

Nikos I. Karacapilidis, Dimitris Papadias

Abstract: This paper describes HERMES, a system that enhances group decision making by providing an argumentation framework to the agents involved. The system organizes the existing knowledge in a discussion graph, which consists of issues, alternatives, positions and preference relations. Argumentation is performed through a set of discourse acts which trigger appropriate procedures for the propagation of information in the graph. HERMES is able to handle incomplete, qualitative and inconsistent information, and provides mechanisms for weighing arguments.