Logic for Multi-agent Systems

Students will obtain advanced theoretical knowledge in the state of the art of formal logics for reasoning about interaction, and skills in using them to model and analyse multi-agent systems. The course will enable students to carry out advanced research projects in the areas of multi-agent systems, artificial intelligence, and modal logic, and give them an overview of the research frontier and open problems.

The course covers the state of the art in logical formalisms for reasoning about multi-agent interaction. Formal logic is of key foundational and practical importance in the fields of multi-agent systems and artificial intelligence. The course will focus on the logical formalization of different types of interaction between rational agents. A main topic will be epistemic logic, logic for reasoning about knowledge and belief. Epistemic logic has had a very strong impact, not only in multi-agent systems and artificial intelligence, but also elsewhere in computer science, in philosophy, in game theory, and in other fields. In addition to epistemic logic, the course will cover logics for reasoning about time and game-like interaction, such as coalition logic and alternating-time temporal logic, as well as other types of multi-agent interaction, and the dynamics of combining several of these types of reasoning. The emphasis will be on formal models and logical languages and their formal semantics. Some proof techniques will be covered.

The course material will consist of textbook chapters and research articles.

A student who has completed the course should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student has advanced theoretical knowledge in the state of the art of formal logics for reasoning about interaction, including about key properties of some of the most important multi-agent logics

Skills

The student has skills in using advanced theoretical knowledge to model and analyse multi-agent systems, including

• presenting and discussing state-of-the art research papers in the fields of modal logic, multi-agent systems and artificial intelligence
• modelling scenarios involving rational interaction and use formal logic to analyse them
• carrying out advanced research projects in the use of formal logic in multi-agent systems and artificial intelligence

General competence

The student is able to read and understand advanced research papers in the fields of modal logic, multi-agent systems and artificial intelligence, as well as formulate research problems in these fields.