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Coalition structure generation in task-based settings

Coalition structure generation in task-based settings
Coalition structure generation in task-based settings
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. However, one of the main problems that hinders the wide spread 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 maximise the social payoff To date, most work on this problem has concentrated on simple characteristic function games. However, this lacks the notion of tasks which makes it more difficult to apply it in many applications. Against this background, this paper studies coalition structure generation in a general task-based setting. Specifically, we show that this problem is NP-hard and that the minimum number of coalition structures that need to be searched through in order to establish a solution within a bound from the optimal is exponential to the number of agents. We then go onto develop an anytime algorithm that can establish a solution within a bound from the optimal with a minimal search and can reduce the bound further if time permits.
567-571
Dang, V.D.
cdda3ebf-e018-41b3-872b-150f3a9eaf76
Jennings, N. R.
ab3d94cc-247c-4545-9d1e-65873d6cdb30
Dang, V.D.
cdda3ebf-e018-41b3-872b-150f3a9eaf76
Jennings, N. R.
ab3d94cc-247c-4545-9d1e-65873d6cdb30

Dang, V.D. and Jennings, N. R. (2006) Coalition structure generation in task-based settings. 17th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI-06), Riva del Garda, Italy. 28 Aug - 01 Sep 2006. pp. 567-571 .

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. However, one of the main problems that hinders the wide spread 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 maximise the social payoff To date, most work on this problem has concentrated on simple characteristic function games. However, this lacks the notion of tasks which makes it more difficult to apply it in many applications. Against this background, this paper studies coalition structure generation in a general task-based setting. Specifically, we show that this problem is NP-hard and that the minimum number of coalition structures that need to be searched through in order to establish a solution within a bound from the optimal is exponential to the number of agents. We then go onto develop an anytime algorithm that can establish a solution within a bound from the optimal with a minimal search and can reduce the bound further if time permits.

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Published date: 2006
Venue - Dates: 17th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI-06), Riva del Garda, Italy, 2006-08-28 - 2006-09-01
Organisations: Agents, Interactions & Complexity

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Local EPrints ID: 262580
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/262580
PURE UUID: ff3bd62f-b4e7-4b98-8a30-6d7e97cf0275

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Date deposited: 15 May 2006
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 07:14

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Contributors

Author: V.D. Dang
Author: N. R. Jennings

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