Generating coalition structures with finite bound from the optimal guarantees
Generating coalition structures with finite bound from the optimal guarantees
The coalition formation process, in which a number of independent, autonomous agents come together to act as a collective, is an important form of interaction in multi-agent systems. When effective, such coalitions can improve the performance of the individual agents and/or of the system as a whole. However, one of the main problems that hinders the widespread adoption of coalition formation technologies is the computational complexity of coalition structure generation. That is, once a group of agents has been identified, how can it be partitioned in order to maximize the social payoff? This problem has been shown to be NP-hard and even finding a sub-optimal solution requires searching an exponential number of solutions. Against this background, this paper reports on a novel anytime algorithm for coalition structure generation that produces solutions that are within a finite bound from the optimal. Our algorithm is benchmarked against Sandholm et al's algorithm [8] (the only other known algorithm for this task that can also establish a worst-case bound from the optimal) and is shown to be up to 10379 times faster (for systems containing 1000 agents) when small bounds from the optimal are desirable.
564-571
Dang, V. D.
5215eda3-55fe-4f4b-8eec-e97f54260db2
Jennings, N. R.
ab3d94cc-247c-4545-9d1e-65873d6cdb30
2004
Dang, V. D.
5215eda3-55fe-4f4b-8eec-e97f54260db2
Jennings, N. R.
ab3d94cc-247c-4545-9d1e-65873d6cdb30
Dang, V. D. and Jennings, N. R.
(2004)
Generating coalition structures with finite bound from the optimal guarantees.
3rd International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, New York, United States.
.
Record type:
Conference or Workshop Item
(Paper)
Abstract
The coalition formation process, in which a number of independent, autonomous agents come together to act as a collective, is an important form of interaction in multi-agent systems. When effective, such coalitions can improve the performance of the individual agents and/or of the system as a whole. However, one of the main problems that hinders the widespread adoption of coalition formation technologies is the computational complexity of coalition structure generation. That is, once a group of agents has been identified, how can it be partitioned in order to maximize the social payoff? This problem has been shown to be NP-hard and even finding a sub-optimal solution requires searching an exponential number of solutions. Against this background, this paper reports on a novel anytime algorithm for coalition structure generation that produces solutions that are within a finite bound from the optimal. Our algorithm is benchmarked against Sandholm et al's algorithm [8] (the only other known algorithm for this task that can also establish a worst-case bound from the optimal) and is shown to be up to 10379 times faster (for systems containing 1000 agents) when small bounds from the optimal are desirable.
Other
aamas04viet.ps
- Other
More information
Published date: 2004
Additional Information:
Event Dates: 2004
Venue - Dates:
3rd International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, New York, United States, 2004-01-01
Organisations:
Agents, Interactions & Complexity
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 259550
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/259550
PURE UUID: f7ccb080-5f87-4855-a593-3dade54eb989
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 29 Jul 2004
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 06:26
Export record
Contributors
Author:
V. D. Dang
Author:
N. R. Jennings
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics