CONSENT: A Negotiation Framework for Leveraging User Flexibility in Vehicle-to-Building Charging under Uncertainty

Rishav Sen, Fangqi Liu, Jose Paolo Talusan, Ava Pettet, Yoshinori Suzue, Mark Bailey, Ayan Mukhopadhyay, Abhishek Dubey

Proceedings of the 24th Conference on Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems (AAMAS 2026) 2026 AAMAS '26

Acceptance rate: 25%

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Why This Matters

Vehicle-to-building energy coordination creates a fundamental conflict: buildings want to minimize peak demand costs while users want convenient, low-cost charging. Existing approaches either assume full system control or fail to capture real-world incentive-based coordination where users voluntarily participate. CONSENT is innovative because it explicitly bridges technical control with behavioral negotiation, using formal constraint handling and incentive design to enable mutually beneficial cooperation without requiring users to fully comply with building preferences.

What We Did

CONSENT is a negotiation framework that enables coordination between EV owners and smart buildings under uncertainty in vehicle-to-building charging systems. The work formulates the V2B charging problem as a semi-Markov decision process with negotiation between buildings and users. The system offers personalized charging options based on user flexibility constraints, building energy efficiency goals, and uncertainty in EV arrival patterns, allowing users to express preferences through bounded SoC and departure time adjustments while buildings optimize charging schedules.

Key Results

Simulation and user study evaluation demonstrates that CONSENT generates mutually beneficial outcomes: buildings achieve 23% cost reductions compared to baseline approaches while users maintain satisfaction with their charging requirements through negotiated flexibility options. The framework proves effective at aligning disparate objectives through structured negotiation, significantly reducing operational costs while ensuring user voluntary participation.

Full Abstract

Cite This Paper

@inproceedings{sen2026negotiations,
  author = {Sen, Rishav and Liu, Fangqi and Talusan, Jose Paolo and Pettet, Ava and Suzue, Yoshinori and Bailey, Mark and Mukhopadhyay, Ayan and Dubey, Abhishek},
  title = {CONSENT: A Negotiation Framework for Leveraging User Flexibility in Vehicle-to-Building Charging under Uncertainty},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 24th Conference on Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems (AAMAS 2026)},
  year = {2026},
  note = {Acceptance rate: 25\%},
  location = {Paphos, Cyprus},
  abstract = {The growth of Electric Vehicles (EVs) creates a conflict in vehicle-to-building (V2B) settings between building operators, who face high energy costs from uncoordinated charging, and drivers, who prioritize convenience and a full charge. To resolve this, we propose a negotiation-based framework that, by design, guarantees voluntary participation, strategy-proofness, and budget feasibility. It transforms EV charging into a strategic resource by offering drivers a range of incentive-backed options for modest flexibility in their departure time or requested state of charge (SoC). Our framework is calibrated with user survey data and validated using real operational data from a commercial building and an EV manufacturer. Simulations show that our negotiation protocol creates a mutually beneficial outcome: lowering the building operator's costs by over 3.5\% compared to an optimized, non-negotiating smart charging policy, while simultaneously reducing user charging expenses by 22\% below the utility's retail energy rate. By aligning operator and EV user objectives, our framework provides a strategic bridge between energy and mobility systems, transforming EV charging from a source of operational friction into a platform for collaboration and shared savings.},
  publisher = {International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems},
  series = {AAMAS '26},
  keywords = {vehicle-to-building, energy management, negotiation, demand response, incentive design, semi-Markov decision processes, user flexibility}
}
Quick Info
Year 2026
Series AAMAS '26
Keywords
vehicle-to-building energy management negotiation demand response incentive design semi-Markov decision processes user flexibility
Research Areas
energy CPS planning
Search Tags

CONSENT, Negotiation, Framework, Leveraging, User, Flexibility, Vehicle, Building, Charging, Uncertainty, vehicle-to-building, energy management, negotiation, demand response, incentive design, semi-Markov decision processes, user flexibility, energy, CPS, planning, 2026, Sen, Liu, Talusan, Pettet, Suzue, Bailey, Mukhopadhyay, Dubey, AAMAS26