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Decentralized Markets versus Central Control: A Comparative Study
- Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research
, 1999
"... Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) promise to offer solutions to problems where established, older paradigms fall short. In order to validate such claims that are repeatedly made in software agent publications, empirical in-depth studies of advantages and weaknesses of multi-agent solutions versus convention ..."
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Cited by 36 (1 self)
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Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) promise to offer solutions to problems where established, older paradigms fall short. In order to validate such claims that are repeatedly made in software agent publications, empirical in-depth studies of advantages and weaknesses of multi-agent solutions versus conventional ones in practical applications are needed. Climate control in large buildings is one application area where multi-agent systems, and marketoriented programming in particular, have been reported to be very successful, although central control solutions are still the standard practice. We have therefore constructed and implemented a variety of market designs for this problem, as well as different standard control engineering solutions. This article gives a detailed analysis and comparison, so as to learn about differences between standard versus agent approaches, and yielding new insights about benefits and limitations of computational markets. An important outcome is that "local in...
On Combinatorial Auction and Lagrangean Relaxation for Distributed Resource Scheduling
- IIE Transactions
, 1998
"... Most existing methods for scheduling are based on centralized or hierarchical decision making using monolithic models. In this study, we investigate a new method based on a distributed and locally autonomous decision structure using the notion of combinatorial auction. In combinatorial auction the b ..."
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Cited by 25 (4 self)
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Most existing methods for scheduling are based on centralized or hierarchical decision making using monolithic models. In this study, we investigate a new method based on a distributed and locally autonomous decision structure using the notion of combinatorial auction. In combinatorial auction the bidders demand a combination of dependent objects with a single bid. We show that not only can we use this auction mechanism to handle complex resource scheduling problems, but there exist strong links between combinatorial auction and Lagrangean-based decomposition. Exploring some of these properties, we characterize combinatorial auction using auction protocols and payment functions. This study is a #rst step toward developing a distributed scheduling framework that maintains system-wide performance while accommodating local preferences and objectives. We provide some insights to this framework by demonstrating four di#erent versions of the auction mechanism using job shop scheduling proble...
The homebots system and field tests: A multi- commodity market for predictive load management
- In Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference and Exhibition on The Practical Application of Intelligent Agents and Multi-Agents (PAAM99
, 1999
"... Paper submission to PAAM’99. ..."
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MarketSAT: An extremely decentralized (but really slow) algorithm for propositional satisfiability
- In Seventeenth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence
, 2000
"... We describe MarketSAT, a highly decentralized, marketbased algorithm for propositional satisfiability. The approach is based on a formulation of satisfiability as production on a supply chain, where producers of particular variable assignments must acquire licenses to fail to satisfy particular clau ..."
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Cited by 11 (3 self)
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We describe MarketSAT, a highly decentralized, marketbased algorithm for propositional satisfiability. The approach is based on a formulation of satisfiability as production on a supply chain, where producers of particular variable assignments must acquire licenses to fail to satisfy particular clauses. MarketSAT employs a market protocol for general supply chain problems, which we show to be expressively equivalent to 3SAT. Experiments suggest that MarketSAT reliably converges to market allocations corresponding to satisfiable truth assignments. We experimentally compare the computational performance with GSAT, a centralized local search algorithm.
Structured Engineering Process for Agent Communication Modelling
"... Intelligent multi-agent systems offer a new architectural style for distributed and knowledge-intensive applications. Now that agent systems are applied on a wider industrial scale, there is a practical need for structured conceptual modelling methods, similar to what is in use for conventional larg ..."
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Intelligent multi-agent systems offer a new architectural style for distributed and knowledge-intensive applications. Now that agent systems are applied on a wider industrial scale, there is a practical need for structured conceptual modelling methods, similar to what is in use for conventional large-scale information and knowledge systems. Such knowledge-level methods are still inadequate for intelligent agent software, especially at the overall system level, i.e., the agent society. Therefore, we present a structured society-level process of agent communication modelling. It forms an integrated extension of the CommonKADS methodology, a widely used standard for knowledge management, analysis and systems development, and acts as a complement on top of existing agent communication languages. Our approach is illustrated by a large-scale multi-agent application for distributed energy management in industries and households, called HOMEBOTS, which is discussed as an extensive industrial case study. 1
Optimal Allocation And Scheduling of Demand in Deregulated Energy Markets
, 2006
"... The deregulation of the electricity industry in many countries has created a number of marketplaces in which producers and consumers can operate in order to more effectively manage and meet their energy needs. To this end, this thesis develops a new model for electricity retail where end-use custome ..."
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The deregulation of the electricity industry in many countries has created a number of marketplaces in which producers and consumers can operate in order to more effectively manage and meet their energy needs. To this end, this thesis develops a new model for electricity retail where end-use customers choose their supplier from competing electricity retailers. The model is based on simultaneous reverse combinatorial auctions, designed as a second-price sealed-bid multi-item auction with supply function bidding. This model prevents strategic bidding and allows the auctioneer to maximise its payoff. Furthermore, we develop optimal single-item and multiitem algorithms for winner determination in such auctions that are significantly less complex than those currently available in the literature. Nevertheless, the consumption of the energy of each singular auctioneer has to be regulated and adapted to the submitted bids in order to maximise the payoff. To this extent, this work models the constellation of energy consuming devices as a distributed constraint optimisation problem (dCOP). However, to operate within this problem domain, dCOP algorithms
