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Proceedings Article

An implementation of the contract net protocol based on marginal cost calculations

11 Jul 1993-pp 256-262
TL;DR: This paper presents a formalization of the bidding and awarding decision process that was left undefined in the original contract net task allocation protocol, based on marginal cost calculations based on local agent criteria.
Abstract: This paper presents a formalization of the bidding and awarding decision process that was left undefined in the original contract net task allocation protocol This formalization is based on marginal cost calculations based on local agent criteria In this way, agents having very different local criteria (based on their selfinterest) can interact to distribute tasks so that the network as a whole functions more effectively In this model, both competitive and cooperative agents can interact In addition, the contract net protocol is extended to allow for clustering of tasks, to deal with the possibility of a large number of announcement and bid messages and to effectively handle situations, in which new bidding and awarding is being done during the period when the results of previous bids are unknown The protocol is verified by the TRACONET (TRAnsportation Cooperation' NET) system, where dispatch centers of different companies cooperate automatically in vehicle routing The implementation is asynchronous and truly distributed, and it provides the agents extensive autonomy The protocol is discussed in detail and test results with real data are presented
Citations
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Book
31 Jul 2000
TL;DR: This is the first comprehensive introduction to multiagent systems and contemporary distributed artificial intelligence and will be a useful reference not only for computer scientists and engineers, but for social scientists and management and organization scientists as well.
Abstract: From the Publisher: This is the first comprehensive introduction to multiagent systems and contemporary distributed artificial intelligence. The book provides detailed coverage of basic topics as well as several closely related ones and is suitable as a textbook. The book can be used for teaching as well as self-study, and it is designed to meet the needs of both researchers and practitioners. In view of the interdisciplinary nature of the field, it will be a useful reference not only for computer scientists and engineers, but for social scientists and management and organization scientists as well.

3,090 citations


Cites background from "An implementation of the contract n..."

  • ...More recently, such a formal model was introduced which gives rise to a negotiation protocol that provably leads to desirable task allocations among agents [60, 62, 64]....

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  • ...The committal search may also involve iteratively renegotiating some parts of the solution that have already been agreed on, but have become less desirable in light of the newer agreements regarding other parts of the solution [60]....

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  • ...This is the setting of many real world problems, including several where computational agents are used [66, 68, 67, 60, 62, 56]....

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  • ...This situation often occurs among computational agents, where the value of a good (or task contract [66, 68, 67, 60, 62, 56]) can only be determined via carrying out a costly computation—e....

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  • ...Sources and Further Reading The abstract model of agents presented here is based on that given in [25, Chapter 13], and also makes use of some ideas from [61, 60]....

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Journal ArticleDOI
08 May 2019
TL;DR: This paper provides an overview of research and development activities in the field of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems and aims to identify key concepts and applications, and to indicate how they relate to one-another.
Abstract: Model-based Bayesian Reinforcement Learning (BRL) provides a principled solution to dealing with the exploration-exploitation trade-off, but such methods typically assume a fully observable environments. The few Bayesian RL methods that are applicable in partially observable domains, such as the Bayes-Adaptive POMDP (BA-POMDP), scale poorly. To address this issue, we introduce the Factored BA-POMDP model (FBA-POMDP), a framework that is able to learn a compact model of the dynamics by exploiting the underlying structure of a POMDP. The FBA-POMDP framework casts the problem as a planning task, for which we adapt the Monte-Carlo Tree Search planning algorithm and develop a belief tracking method to approximate the joint posterior over the state and model variables. Our empirical results show that this method outperforms a number of BRL baselines and is able to learn efficiently when the factorization is known, as well as learn both the factorization and the model parameters simultaneously.

2,192 citations


Cites background or methods from "An implementation of the contract n..."

  • ...To rectify some of its shortcoming, a number of extensions to the basic protocol have been proposed, for example [128]....

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  • ...Economics-based mechanisms have been utilized in mas to address problems of resource allocation (the central theme of economic research) [102, 128, 71]....

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Book
15 Dec 2008
TL;DR: This exciting and pioneering new overview of multiagent systems, which are online systems composed of multiple interacting intelligent agents, i.e., online trading, offers a newly seen computer science perspective on multi agent systems, while integrating ideas from operations research, game theory, economics, logic, and even philosophy and linguistics.
Abstract: This exciting and pioneering new overview of multiagent systems, which are online systems composed of multiple interacting intelligent agents, i.e., online trading, offers a newly seen computer science perspective on multiagent systems, while integrating ideas from operations research, game theory, economics, logic, and even philosophy and linguistics. The authors emphasize foundations to create a broad and rigorous treatment of their subject, with thorough presentations of distributed problem solving, game theory, multiagent communication and learning, social choice, mechanism design, auctions, cooperative game theory, and modal logics of knowledge and belief. For each topic, basic concepts are introduced, examples are given, proofs of key results are offered, and algorithmic considerations are examined. An appendix covers background material in probability theory, classical logic, Markov decision processes and mathematical programming. Written by two of the leading researchers of this engaging field, this book will surely serve as THE reference for researchers in the fastest-growing area of computer science, and be used as a text for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses.

2,068 citations

Book
01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: This second edition has been completely revised, capturing the tremendous developments in multiagent systems since the first edition appeared in 1999.
Abstract: Multiagent systems are made up of multiple interacting intelligent agents -- computational entities to some degree autonomous and able to cooperate, compete, communicate, act flexibly, and exercise control over their behavior within the frame of their objectives They are the enabling technology for a wide range of advanced applications relying on distributed and parallel processing of data, information, and knowledge relevant in domains ranging from industrial manufacturing to e-commerce to health care This book offers a state-of-the-art introduction to multiagent systems, covering the field in both breadth and depth, and treating both theory and practice It is suitable for classroom use or independent study This second edition has been completely revised, capturing the tremendous developments in multiagent systems since the first edition appeared in 1999 Sixteen of the book's seventeen chapters were written for this edition; all chapters are by leaders in the field, with each author contributing to the broad base of knowledge and experience on which the book rests The book covers basic concepts of computational agency from the perspective of both individual agents and agent organizations; communication among agents; coordination among agents; distributed cognition; development and engineering of multiagent systems; and background knowledge in logics and game theory Each chapter includes references, many illustrations and examples, and exercises of varying degrees of difficulty The chapters and the overall book are designed to be self-contained and understandable without additional material Supplemental resources are available on the book's Web site Contributors:Rafael Bordini, Felix Brandt, Amit Chopra, Vincent Conitzer, Virginia Dignum, Jurgen Dix, Ed Durfee, Edith Elkind, Ulle Endriss, Alessandro Farinelli, Shaheen Fatima, Michael Fisher, Nicholas R Jennings, Kevin Leyton-Brown, Evangelos Markakis, Lin Padgham, Julian Padget, Iyad Rahwan, Talal Rahwan, Alex Rogers, Jordi Sabater-Mir, Yoav Shoham, Munindar P Singh, Kagan Tumer, Karl Tuyls, Wiebe van der Hoek, Laurent Vercouter, Meritxell Vinyals, Michael Winikoff, Michael Wooldridge, Shlomo Zilberstein

1,692 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper presents several solutions to the problem of task allocation among autonomous agents, and suggests that the agents form coalitions in order to perform tasks or improve the efficiency of their performance.

1,170 citations


Cites methods from "An implementation of the contract n..."

  • ...6 Transportation systems have been extensively used as examples for DPS systems (e.g., [ 41 ])....

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References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the contract net protocol has been developed to specify problem-solving communication and control for nodes in a distributed problem solver, where task distribution is affected by a negotiation process, a discussion carried on between nodes with tasks to be executed and nodes that may be able to execute those tasks.
Abstract: The contract net protocol has been developed to specify problem-solving communication and control for nodes in a distributed problem solver. Task distribution is affected by a negotiation process, a discussion carried on between nodes with tasks to be executed and nodes that may be able to execute those tasks.

3,612 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A framework called the contract net is presented that specifies communication and control in a distributed problem solver, and comparisons with planner, conniver, hearsay-ii, and pup 6 are used to demonstrate that negotiation is a natural extension to the transfer of control mechanisms used in earlier problem-solving systems.

1,305 citations


"An implementation of the contract n..." refers background in this paper

  • ...1 Introduction The contract net protocol (CNP) (Smith 1980; Smith & Davis 1981; Davis & Smith 1988) for decentralized task allocation is one of the important paradigms developed in distributed artificial intelligence (DAI)....

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Journal ArticleDOI

938 citations


"An implementation of the contract n..." refers background in this paper

  • ...The messages received during the operation of the bidder, awarder or award taker are handled on the next cycle of the local control loop....

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Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jan 1981
TL;DR: Two forms of cooperation in distributed problem solving are considered: task-sharing and result-sharing, and the basic methodology is presented and systems in which it has been used are described.
Abstract: Two forms of cooperation in distributed problem solving are considered: task-sharing and result-sharing. In the former, nodes assist each other by sharing the computational load for the execution of subtasks of the overall problem. In the latter, nodes assist each other by sharing partial results which are based on somewhat different perspectives on the overall problem. Different perspectives arise because the nodes use different knowledge sources (KS's) (e.g., syntax versus acoustics in the case of a speech-understanding system) or different data (e.g., data that is sensed at different locations in the case of a distributed sensing system). Particular attention is given to control and to internode communication for the two forms of cooperation. For each, the basic methodology is presented and systems in which it has been used are described. The two forms are then compared and the types of applications for which they are suitable are considered.

681 citations


"An implementation of the contract n..." refers background in this paper

  • ...The contract net protocol (CNP) (Smith 1980; Smith & Davis 1981; Davis & Smith 1988) for decentralized task allocation is one of the important paradigms developed in distributed artificial intelligence (DAI)....

    [...]