Topic
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.
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TL;DR: A new architecture and negotiation protocol for the dynamic scheduling of manufacturing systems based on two paradigms: multi-agent systems and holonic systems, which assumes that deadlines are the most important constraints to consider.
Abstract: This paper deals with a new architecture and negotiation protocol for the dynamic scheduling of manufacturing systems. The architecture is based on two paradigms: multi-agent systems and holonic systems. The main contribution in the architecture is the existence of holons representing tasks together with holons representing resources. The well-known contract net protocol has been adapted to handle temporal constraints and to deal with conflicts. It also deals with conflict situations, namely with the case of the ‘indecision problem’. This approach assumes that deadlines are the most important constraints to consider.
91 citations
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TL;DR: The importance of coordination in supply chain is emphasised and a general architecture of agile supply chain management is presented based on a multi-agent theory, in which the supply network is managed by a set of intelligent agents for one or more activities.
Abstract: In a worldwide network of suppliers, factories, warehouses, distribution centres and retailers, the supply chain plays a very important role in the acquisition, transformation, and delivery of raw materials and products. One of the most important characteristics of agile supply chain is the ability to reconfigure dynamically and quickly according to demand changes in the market. In this paper, concepts and characteristics of an agile supply chain are discussed and the agile supply chain is regarded as one of the pivotal technologies of agile manufacture based on dynamic alliance. Also, the importance of coordination in supply chain is emphasised and a general architecture of agile supply chain management is presented based on a multi-agent theory, in which the supply chain is managed by a set of intelligent agents for one or more activities. The supply chain management system functions are to coordinate its agents. Agent functionalities and responsibilities are defined respectively, and a contract net protocol joint with case-based reasoning for coordination and an algorithm for task allocation is presented.
90 citations
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TL;DR: This work proposes an original solution based on genetic algorithms which allows to determine a set of good heuristics for a given benchmark and proposes a dynamic model using agents that is a way to simulate the behavior of entities that are going to collaborate to improve the Gantt diagram.
84 citations
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01 Jun 2000TL;DR: Three methods for coordinating multiple agents based on a contract net protocol, a centralized scheme in which all of the coordination is done at a central location and the agents have no autonomy at the planning level are described and evaluated.
Abstract: This paper describes and evaluates three methods for coordinating multiple agents. These agents interact in two ways. First, they are able to work together to achieve a common pool of goals which would require greater time to achieve by any one of the agents operating independently. Second, the agents share resources that are required by the actions needed to accomplish the goals. The first coordination method described is a centralized scheme in which all of the coordination is done at a central location and the agents have no autonomy at the planning level. The second method performs goal allocation using a centralized heuristic planner and (distributed) planners for the individual agents perform detailed planning. The third method uses a contract net protocol to allocate goals and then (distributed) planners for the individual agents perform detailed planning. We compare these approaches and empirically evaluate them using a geological science scenario in which multiple rovers are used to sample spectra of rocks on Mars.
78 citations
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05 Nov 1995TL;DR: The basic concepts behind AgenTalk, a language used for describing coordination protocols in multiagent systems, are presented and its capability is demonstrated by describing the contract net and multistage negotiation protocols in Agen talk using its inheritance mechanism.
Abstract: Presents the basic concepts behind AgenTalk, a language used for describing coordination protocols in multiagent systems. Many coordination protocols, such as the contract net protocol, have been proposed, and many application-specific coordination protocols are expected to be required as soon as the building of more software agents begins. Thus, a language for defining and implementing such coordination protocols plays a crucial role in the development of multiagent systems. By incorporating an inheritance mechanism, AgenTalk allows coordination protocols to be incrementally defined and easily customized to suit various application domains. Its capability is demonstrated by describing the contract net and multistage negotiation protocols in AgenTalk using its inheritance mechanism.
75 citations