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Decentralised Coordination of Low-Power Embedded Devices Using the Max-Sum Algorithm

Decentralised Coordination of Low-Power Embedded Devices Using the Max-Sum Algorithm
Decentralised Coordination of Low-Power Embedded Devices Using the Max-Sum Algorithm
This paper considers the problem of performing decentralised coordination of low-power embedded devices (as is required within many environmental sensing and surveillance applications). Specifically, we address the generic problem of maximising social welfare within a group of interacting agents. We propose a novel representation of the problem, as a cyclic bipartite factor graph, composed of variable and function nodes (representing the agents’ states and utilities respectively). We show that such representation allows us to use an extension of the max-sum algorithm to generate approximate solutions to this global optimisation problem through local decentralised message passing. We empirically evaluate this approach on a canonical coordination problem (graph colouring), and benchmark it against state of the art approximate and complete algorithms (DSA and DPOP). We show that our approach is robust to lossy communication, that it generates solutions closer to those of DPOP than DSA is able to, and that it does so with a communication cost (in terms of total messages size) that scales very well with the number of agents in the system (compared to the exponential increase of DPOP). Finally, we describe a hardware implementation of our algorithm operating on low-power Chipcon CC2431 System-on-Chip sensor nodes.
639-646
Farinelli, Alessandro
d2f26070-f403-4cae-b712-7097cb2e3fc6
Rogers, Alex
f9130bc6-da32-474e-9fab-6c6cb8077fdc
Petcu, Adrian
adfcb195-c2b5-47f2-9b22-71e2b3a567db
Jennings, N. R.
ab3d94cc-247c-4545-9d1e-65873d6cdb30
Farinelli, Alessandro
d2f26070-f403-4cae-b712-7097cb2e3fc6
Rogers, Alex
f9130bc6-da32-474e-9fab-6c6cb8077fdc
Petcu, Adrian
adfcb195-c2b5-47f2-9b22-71e2b3a567db
Jennings, N. R.
ab3d94cc-247c-4545-9d1e-65873d6cdb30

Farinelli, Alessandro, Rogers, Alex, Petcu, Adrian and Jennings, N. R. (2008) Decentralised Coordination of Low-Power Embedded Devices Using the Max-Sum Algorithm. Seventh International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS-08), Estoril, Portugal. 12 - 16 May 2008. pp. 639-646 .

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

This paper considers the problem of performing decentralised coordination of low-power embedded devices (as is required within many environmental sensing and surveillance applications). Specifically, we address the generic problem of maximising social welfare within a group of interacting agents. We propose a novel representation of the problem, as a cyclic bipartite factor graph, composed of variable and function nodes (representing the agents’ states and utilities respectively). We show that such representation allows us to use an extension of the max-sum algorithm to generate approximate solutions to this global optimisation problem through local decentralised message passing. We empirically evaluate this approach on a canonical coordination problem (graph colouring), and benchmark it against state of the art approximate and complete algorithms (DSA and DPOP). We show that our approach is robust to lossy communication, that it generates solutions closer to those of DPOP than DSA is able to, and that it does so with a communication cost (in terms of total messages size) that scales very well with the number of agents in the system (compared to the exponential increase of DPOP). Finally, we describe a hardware implementation of our algorithm operating on low-power Chipcon CC2431 System-on-Chip sensor nodes.

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More information

Published date: May 2008
Additional Information: Event Dates: 12-16 May 2008
Venue - Dates: Seventh International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS-08), Estoril, Portugal, 2008-05-12 - 2008-05-16
Organisations: Agents, Interactions & Complexity

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 265159
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/265159
PURE UUID: 9300d66a-16ec-4365-a551-8e341fd92a3a

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Date deposited: 07 Feb 2008 10:31
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 08:03

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Contributors

Author: Alessandro Farinelli
Author: Alex Rogers
Author: Adrian Petcu
Author: N. R. Jennings

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