Authors:
Udara C. Weerakoon
and
Vicki H. Allan
Affiliation:
Utah State University, United States
Keyword(s):
Multi-agent system, Reorganization, Simulation, Coalition, Hedging environment.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Agents
;
Artificial Intelligence
;
Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support Systems
;
Autonomous Systems
;
Bioinformatics
;
Biomedical Engineering
;
Distributed and Mobile Software Systems
;
Enterprise Information Systems
;
Information Systems Analysis and Specification
;
Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development
;
Knowledge-Based Systems
;
Methodologies and Technologies
;
Multi-Agent Systems
;
Operational Research
;
Simulation
;
Software Engineering
;
Symbolic Systems
;
Task Planning and Execution
Abstract:
In a network graph in which nodes represent agents and edges represent "can work with" relationships, coalitions form. Such coalitions satisfy the skill set requirements of a task while still obeying partner requirements. Agents composing a coalition must form a connected subgraph in the network graph. There is no centralized control, and agents are free to propose any coalition that satisfies both the skill set and partner requirements. In this research, strengths of various coalition formation strategies are compared with respect to both success and profit. To determine the quality of the solution and for comparison purposes, we temporarily remove the restriction that an agent can belong to a single proposed coalition and that a task can be proposed by a single coalition (i.e. hedging environment). In addition, agents are given the ability to dynamically reorganize their partner connections in an attempt to improve utility. Agents employing egalitarian, intelligent and inventory re
organization are compared with agents employing structural and performance reorganization.
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