Different agents in a Multi-Agent System generate different perspectives regarding shared information; hence making it a natural setting for conflicts. However, conflicts might also be seen as a chance for improvement and as an indication for invoking learning processes.

Conflict is a state of opposition, disagreement or incompatibility between two or more agents or a group of agents. This issue arises in every Multi-Agent System that has been proposed and is in application, making it a vital issue of consideration.

As mentioned earlier, agents in a Multi-Agent System can operate in two different modes, by either working together to achieve a common goal or individual agent goals with mutual resources. This gives rise to two different types of conflicts: Knowledge Base and Physical Conflict.

• This is known as an epistemic conflict.
• It is when two or more agents hold contradictory beliefs on a common topic.
• For instance, if agent A asserts that an object is moving towards the runway(in an airport situation), whereas agent B asserts that the object is moving away from the runway. It can be observed that agent A and agent B have contradictory beliefs, thus giving rise to a conflict, Knowledge Base and Physical Base.
• To avoid such a type of conflict, techniques such as mutual exclusion, semaphores and locking could be put into application.

• It is the intention of utilizing limited resources simultaneously. It resembles the competition situation for the processor time in an operating system.
• A common physical conflict in a robot agent system is regarding space. This is due to the fact that two robots cannot be in the same space at the same time. Thus it can be said that robots are competing for a resource that is limited.

Conflict management is one of the major management aspects that a Multi-Agent System needs to be able to deal with in order to ensure the successful running of the System. Negotiation and arbitration are two of the various techniques and tactics that could be practised to resolve conflicts, and deal with them in an efficient manner to prevent performance levels of the system as a whole from being damaged. Arbitration defines rules of behaviour, which constrain the coming together of agents. They affect Multi-Agent Systems in that they help keep conflicts to the minimum and preserve individuals and societies.