The development of a multi-agent system for construction claims negotiation

Negotiation is an important stage in construction claims management process. Unfortunately, most construction claims negotiations are conducted inefficiently due to various reasons. The recent development of multi-agent systems provides an innovative approach to facilitating various negotiations. This research has developed a multi-agent system for construction claims negotiation (MASCOT) to resolve the inefficiency problem. This paper discusses the key points of the MASCOT model. Of particular interest is the computer implementation of the developed MASCOT model using the ZEUS agent building toolkit. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.