Sensor Web coalition formation via argumentation-based negotiation

We describe how negotiation between agents is used to create coalitions of sensors that are joined into a sensor Web. The work presented in this paper uses argumentation-based negotiation to allow sensors to rationally decommit from future tasks and to join a newly formed sensor Web; or, alternately, to reject joining a sensor Web if they believe their previous commitment to be more important. This research extends our previous system that used a combination of a Matchmaker architecture together with the contract net protocol to enable the dynamic, task-based creation of a sensor Web. We tested our negotiation-based sensor Web system using a simulation of a cyclonic event and a variety of sensors.