From real-world regulations to concrete norms for software agents: a case-based reasoning approach

Abstract

When trying to use software agents (SAs) for real-world business and thereby putting them in a situation to operate under real-world laws, the abstractness of human regulations often poses severe problems. Thus, human regulations are written in a very abstract way, making them open to a wide range of interpretations and applicable for several scenarios as well as stable over a longer period of time. However, in order to be applicable for SAs, regulations need to be precise and unambiguous. This paper presents a case-based reasoning approach in order to bridge the gap between abstract human regulations and the concrete regulations needed for SAs, by developing and using a knowledge base that can be used for drawing analogies and thereby serves as reference for \translating" abstract terms in human regulations.