Design of an Artificial Decision Maker for a Human-based Social Simulation – Experience of the SimParc Project

. Introduction In this paper, we discuss the issue for an artificial agent to take decisions in a social simulation. The type of social simulation that we refer to here is a social simulation populated by humans. More precisely, we consider a role playing game 2 (“serious game”) where humans play some role and discuss, negotiate and take decisions about a common domain, in our case environment management decisions. We are now in the process of inserting artificial agents into the human-based social simulation [Briot et al. 2008]. One of the ideas is to possibly replace some of the human players by artificial players (artificial agents). The social simulation will therefore become hybrid, with human and artificial agents. A first motivation is to address the possible absence of sufficient number of human players for a game session [Adamatti et al. 2007]. But this will also allow more systematic experiments about specific configurations of players profiles, because of artificial players’ objective, deterministic and reproducible behaviors. More precisely, we are considering three types of artificial agents: artificial park manager, artificial players and assistant agents. In this paper we focus on the design of the artificial park manager agent. Its objective is to take decision based on its own analysis of the situation and on the proposals by the players. The agent is also able to explain its decision based on its chain of argumentation. In this paper, after introducing the SimParc project, its role playing game and its computer support, we describe the park manager agent objectives, architecture and implementation. 2. The SimParc Project 2.1 Project Motivation A significant challenge involved in biodiversity management is the management of protected areas (e.g., national parks), which usually undergo various pressures on resources, use and access, which results in many conflicts. This makes the issue of conflict resolution a key issue for the participatory management of protected areas. Methodologies intending to facilitate this process are being addressed via bottom-up approaches that emphasize the role of local actors. Examples of social actors involved in these conflicts are: park managers, local communities at the border area, tourism operators, public agencies and NGOs. Examples of inherent conflicts connected with biodiversity protection in the area are: irregular occupation, inadequate tourism exploration, water pollution, environmental degradation and illegal use of natural resources. Our SimParc project focuses on participatory parks management. (The origin of the name SimParc stands in French for “Simulation Participative de Parcs”) [Briot et al. 2007]. It is based on the observation of several case studies in Brazil. However, we chose not to reproduce exactly a real case, in order to leave the door open for broader game possibilities [Irving et al. 2007]. Our project aim is to help various stakeholders at collectively understand conflicts and negotiate strategies for handlin