Contract Net Protocol

About: Contract Net Protocol is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 606 publications have been published within this topic receiving 13729 citations.

Multi-agent-based fuzzy scheduling for shop floor

Abstract: This paper deals with a multi-agent architecture of agile manufacturing system and a hybrid strategy for shop floor scheduling. Firstly, it proposes a distributed multi-agent-based manufacturing structure, which has characteristics of self-determination and distribution grounded on multi-agent as well as control and harmony grounded on hierarchical structure or dynamic logical unit. Then, based on the fuzzy theory and method, it studies a hybrid shop floor scheduling strategy that combines fuzzy programming with fuzzy contract net protocol. The hybrid strategy has both virtues of precision of static programming and flexibility of contract net protocol.

Adaptive service composition in an ambient environment with a multi-agent system

Abstract: The ambient intelligence consists of the integration of computer science technologies in the objects of the environment around us in order to create a smart one Each object in the environment performs a different service as part of achieving a task The adaptive Service composition is a context-aware system used in the situation where the user’s needs cannot be satisfied by a single service but by the combination of several ones One of the main and principal characteristics of ambient environments is the adaptability to the context The multi-agent systems with their characteristics of autonomy, proactivity, mobility and sociability are one of the most promising techniques of service composition and they became a major and significant paradigm for developping ambient systems In this paper, we present a model of adaptive service composition in ambient environment based on multi-agent system named Multi Agent System for Adaptive Service Composition (MAS-ASC) To each object of the environment is associated an agent The set of the agents coordinate their competences taking into account the context in order to perform an activity MAS-ASC is based on the Contract Net Protocol in which the agents exchange their proposals in the form of call for proposal It is implemented on Java Agent DEvelopment framework platform and has been tested to economize the consumption of energy in an intelligent lighting system example

Equivalence class verification of the contract net protocol-extension

Abstract: The contract net protocol is a task allocation protocol that facilitates negotiation between bidders and an auctioneer in a multi-agent system to form a contract. The contract net protocol-extension (CNP-ext) allows the bidders to interact with more than one auctioneer concurrently, and to update their bids until a bid is granted. This introduces flexibility and ensures better selection of a bid. In earlier work, we modelled the CNP-ext with coloured petri nets and showed that it terminates correctly. We also analysed the terminal states and proved that the agents have consistent beliefs at the end of negotiations. Lastly, we showed how the number of terminal states and channel bounds are related to the number of bidders. However, due to state space explosion, our results were restricted to five bidders. As all bidders are considered identical, symmetries exist in the state space. Hence, we decided to tackle this problem using equivalence classes. In this paper, after first presenting an introduction to the CNP-ext, we present a substantial revision to our CNP-ext model and an intentionally didactic description of its operation. Then, we use equivalence classes to analyse the protocol and, importantly, present a proof that our equivalence specification is consistent. Using this technique, we are able to extend the verification results to twenty-four bidders.

The Relation Web Model-An Organizational Approach to Agent Cooperation Based on Social Mechanism

Abstract: In response to the problems that have arisen regarding the suitable organization structure which allows intelligent agents for efficient cooperation and communication reduction, several approaches are suggested to address these problems such as contract net protocol (CNP), middle-agent, acquaintance model, referral web, etc However, these systems cannot easily scale up due to imposing infrastructure, protocol and communication overheads In this paper a relation web model is proposed for efficient cooperation in a large-scale open multi-agent system (OMAS) In relation web, the acquaintance chains play a big part in transferring and allocating the tasks When facing a task beyond an agent's capabilities, the agent directly sends part/all of the task to the best qualified acquaintance from its relation web Trust is considered to be important whenever agents must interact in agent sociality, and the propagation of trust-degree is introduced in acquaintance chain Besides, the approach is simple and scales up with no infrastructure or protocol overheads, thus it may be very useful for large scale OMAS

Agent Dynamic Task Allocation Based on Improved Contract Net Protocol

Abstract: Aimed to dynamic task allocation problem in missile planning system,the formalization description and mathematic model about task allocation are studiedThe characteristic of dynamic task allocation is analyzedAn improved contract net algorithm about Agent dynamic task allocation problem is proposedThe algorithm settles the dynamic task allocation problem in uncertain opening environmentThe example shows the algorithm is effective