Title: Argumentation-based negotiation for collaborative engineering design

Authors: Yan Jin, Mathieu Geslin

Addresses: Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern California, 3650 McClintock Ave., OHE-430, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1453, USA. ' Honda R&D Americas, Inc., 1900 Harpers Way, Torrance, CA 90501-2746, USA

Abstract: Designing complex systems requires collaboration among multiple engineers who coordinate to plan tasks, cooperate to resolve dependencies, and co-construct to identify shared objectives and solutions. While collaboration technologies have been developed to date, few can help designers negotiate effectively and reach agreement efficiently. In this paper, we propose an argumentation based engineering negotiation approach that provides a structured framework for designers to specify design situations, compose arguments, and make joint decisions by following various strategies. The details of the proposed approach are described and a case study is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.

Keywords: collaborative design; engineering negotiation; argumentation; coordination; cooperation; decision making; co-construction; agreement; engineering design; collaborative engineering; collaboration.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCE.2009.027443

International Journal of Collaborative Engineering, 2009 Vol.1 No.1/2, pp.125 - 151

Published online: 24 Jul 2009 *