A Control-Theoretic and Game-Theoretic Approach to Information Asymmetry in MAS

Based on the ideas of modern control theory and methods of game theory, this paper presents a formal framework for dealing with information asymmetry in MAS. In the framework, a control theory based model is introduced to specify a communication process between two agents. In the process, an agent who is short of some information takes the initiative to request needed information from agent who has information, and both agents establish reasoning process related to these information. The reasoning process corresponds to state space of controlled system in control theory. Besides, input and output messages of both agents are identified in the reasoning process. A method based on game theory is employed in the framework to constrain the information hiding behaviors of agents in communication. The work presented here not only introduces a new perspective of information asymmetry in MAS, but also presents a way to deal with information asymmetry in a proactive manner.