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.

Method of using BDI agents to implement service-oriented workflow mapping in AGWMS

Abstract: Workflow management is one of the most important parts of ShanghaiGrid, which has a complex service-oriented infrastructure. Because grid environment is very dynamic and services in it are shared among many users, it is impossible to optimise grid workflow from the point of view of execution ahead of time. In fact, one may want to make decisions about the execution locations and the access to a particular data set as late as possible, which is the main objective of grid workflow mapping. In this paper, three types of workflow are denoted as abstract workflow (AW), concrete workflow (CW) and executable workflow (EW). We propose a method of using Belief-desire-intention (BDI) agents to implement service-oriented workflow mapping in the agent-based grid workflow management system (AGWMS) of ShanghaiGrid. BDI agent technology helps the system meet challenges from the grid context. Contract net protocol (CNP) provides a very proper negotiation model for these agents. The problem of workflow mapping has been transferred to the problem of multi-agent negotiation with the help of CNP model in AGWMS. AW2CW and CW2EW mapping algorithms are also given to accomplish service-oriented workflow mapping.

Performance of Time-Bound Negotiation in Agent-Based Manufacturing Control

Abstract: Agent-based software technology plays an impor- tant role in the manufacturing industry for achieving agility. Shop floor control applications can be designed based on the paradigm of agent negotiation to cope with variabilities and disturbances in the production environment. This often involves the contract net protocol (CNP) and previous research has suggested that the timing parameters of CNP can affect significantly the performance of agent negotiation. This work extends our knowledge in this area of research by considering the performance effects of the combinatorial variations of these parameters in a discrete-event simulation case study. The results provide not only a deeper understanding of the time-bound agent negotiation process, but also insights into the performance fine-tuning of CNP-based control schemes. Index Terms—multi-agent systems; negotiation protocol; sim- ulation; work-in-progress; cycle time

Genetic Algorithm-based Resource Selection Model for Collaborative Logistics System

Abstract: In this paper,a framework of running mechanism in a collaborative logistics system is proposed.In this framework,a dynamic candidate resource pool is built by the analytical hierarchy process(AHP),and the process of resources selection is controlled by an improved contract net protocol with the support of logistics network model.A genetic algorithm is employed to find the optimized selected resources so as to efficiently complete the demand of logistics services.

Real-Time Task Allocation of Heterogeneous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Search and Prosecute Mission

Abstract: In recent years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has developed rapidly after the era of computers and smart phones, which is expected to be applied to cities to improve the quality of life and realize the intelligence of smart cities. In particular, with the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) last year, in order to reduce contact, some IoT devices, such as robots, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and unmanned vehicles, have played a great role in temperature monitoring, goods delivery, and so on. In this paper, we study the real-time task allocation problem of heterogeneous UAVs searching and delivering goods in the city. Considering the resource requirement of task and resource constraints of the UAV, when the resource of a single UAV cannot meet the requirement of the task, we propose a method of forming a UAV coalition based on contract net protocol. We analyze the coalition formation problem from two aspects: mission completion time and UAV’s energy consumption. Firstly, the mathematical model is established according to the optimization objective and condition constraints. Then, according to the established mathematical model, different coalition formation algorithms are proposed. To minimize the mission completion time, we propose a two-stage coalition formation algorithm. Aiming at minimizing the UAV’s energy consumption, it is transformed into a zero-one integer programming problem, which can be solved by the existing solver. Then, considering both mission completion time and energy consumption, we propose a coalition formation algorithm based on a resource tree. Finally, we design some simulation experiments and compare with the task allocation algorithm based on resource welfare. The simulation results show that our proposed algorithms are feasible and effective.