文档介绍：Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 5, 243–254, 2002
© 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Manufactured in herlands.
Game Theory and Decision Theory
in Multi-Agent Systems
SIMON PARSONS .******@
MICHAEL WOOLDRIDGE .******@
Department puter Science, University of Liverpool,
Liverpool L69 7ZF, United Kingdom
Abstract. In the last few years, there has been increasing interest from the munity in the
use of techniques from decision theory and game theory. Our aims in this article are firstly to briefly
summarize the key concepts of decision theory and game theory, secondly to discuss how these tools are
being applied in agent systems research, and finally to introduce this special issue of Autonomous Agents
and Multi-Agent Systems by reviewing the papers that appear.
Keywords: game theory, decision theory
1. Introduction
In the last few years, there has been increasing interest in the use of techniques from
decision theory and game theory for analyzing and implementing agent systems.
Our aims in this article are firstly to briefly summarize the key concepts of decision
theory and game theory, secondly to discuss how these tools are being applied in
agent systems research, and finally to introduce this special issue of Autonomous
Agents and Multi-Agent Systems by briefly discussing the papers that appear.
Broadly speaking, decision theory [20] is a means of analyzing which of a series
of options should be taken when it is uncertain exactly what the result of taking
the option will be. Decision theory concentrates on identifying the “best” decision
option, where the notion of “best” is allowed to have a number of different mean-
ings, of which the mon is that which maximises the expected utility of
the decision maker. Decision theory provides a powerful tool with which to analyze
scenarios in which an agent must make decisions in an unpredictable environment.
Game theory [1] is a close relative of decision th