Negotiation schemes for multi-agent cooperative search

Sujit, PB and Ghose, D (2009) Negotiation schemes for multi-agent cooperative search. In: Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 223 (G6). pp. 791-813.

PDF 16.pdf - Published Version Restricted to Registered users only Download (1MB) | Request a copy

Abstract

Because of limited sensor and communication ranges, designing efficient mechanisms for cooperative tasks is difficult. In this article, several negotiation schemes for multiple agents performing a cooperative task are presented. The negotiation schemes provide suboptimal solutions, but have attractive features of fast decision-making, and scalability to large number of agents without increasing the complexity of the algorithm. A software agent architecture of the decision-making process is also presented. The effect of the magnitude of information flow during the negotiation process is studied by using different models of the negotiation scheme. The performance of the various negotiation schemes, using different information structures, is studied based on the uncertainty reduction achieved for a specified number of search steps. The negotiation schemes perform comparable to that of optimal strategy in terms of uncertainty reduction and also require very low computational time, similar to 7 per cent to that of optimal strategy. Finally, analysis on computational and communication requirement for the negotiation schemes is carried out.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Publisher:	Professional Engineering Publishing
Additional Information:	Copyright for this article belongs to Professional Engineering Publishing.
Keywords:	multiple agents; cooperative search; negotiation; autonomous vehicles
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Aerospace Engineering(Formerly Aeronautical Engineering)
Date Deposited:	10 Dec 2009 10:02
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 05:51
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/24806

Actions (login required)

View Item