Effect of Alternative Distributed Task Allocation Strategy Based on Local Observations in Contract Net Protocol

2012 ◽  
pp. 90-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshiharu Sugawara ◽  
Kensuke Fukuda ◽  
Toshio Hirotsu ◽  
Satoshi Kurihara
Keyword(s):  
Task Allocation ◽  
Allocation Strategy ◽  
Contract Net Protocol ◽  
Contract Net ◽  
Distributed Task Allocation

Distributed Task Allocation in Multi-Robot Systems Using Argumentation-Based Negotiation

2012 ◽  
Vol 463-464 ◽  
pp. 1238-1241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Lolu ◽  
Aurelian Stanescu ◽  
Mihnea Moisescu ◽  
Ioan Stefan Sacala
Keyword(s):  
Task Allocation ◽  
Automated Negotiation ◽  
Uncertain Environments ◽  
Contract Net Protocol ◽  
Contract Net ◽  
Weakly Coupled ◽  
Robot Systems ◽  
Distributed Task Allocation ◽  
Coupled Tasks ◽  
Multi Robot

The continuous growing of application’s complexity and increased interest in automated negotiation brought recently researcher’s attention to persuasive negotiation (PN) and argumentation-based negotiation (ABN). The Market-based approach has gained popularity in the last decade due to its flexibility, speed and robustness. Contract Net protocol inspired algorithms have been proved suitable for allocating weakly coupled tasks in robot teams, but there are still some challenges when addressing complex application in uncertain environments. In this context the purpose of the paper is to present a method to allocate tasks in multi-robot systems through the use of augmentation- based negotiation.

scholarly journals Task Assignment of the Improved Contract Net Protocol under a Multi-Agent System

Algorithms ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiarui Zhang ◽  
Gang Wang ◽  
Yafei Song
Keyword(s):  
Task Allocation ◽  
Ant Colony Algorithm ◽  
Threshold Model ◽  
Response Threshold ◽  
Contract Net Protocol ◽  
Contract Net ◽  
Dynamic Contract ◽  
Response Threshold Model ◽  
Allocation Process ◽  
Run Time

Background: The existing contract net protocol has low overall efficiency during the bidding and release period, and a large amount of redundant information is generated during the negotiation process. Methods: On the basis of an ant colony algorithm, the dynamic response threshold model and the flow of pheromone model were established, then the complete task allocation process was designed. Three experimental settings were simulated under different conditions. Results: When the number of agents was 20 and the maximum load value was L max = 3 , the traffic and run-time of task allocation under the improved contract net protocol decreased. When the number of tasks and L max was fixed, the improved contract net protocol had advantages over the dynamic contract net and classical contract net protocols in terms of both traffic and run-time. Setting up the number of agents, tasks and L max to improve the task allocation under the contract net not only minimizes the number of errors, but also the task completion rate reaches 100%. Conclusions: The improved contract net protocol can reduce the traffic and run-time compared with classical contract net and dynamic contract net protocols. Furthermore, the algorithm can achieve better assignment results and can re-forward all erroneous tasks.

scholarly journals Experimental analysis of contract net protocol in multi-robot task allocation

2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksis Liekna ◽  
Egons Lavendelis ◽  
Arvids Grabovskis
Keyword(s):  
Task Allocation ◽  
Problem Domain ◽  
Contract Net Protocol ◽  
Contract Net ◽  
Vacuum Cleaning ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Robot Task ◽  
Cleaning Robots ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Multi Robot

Abstract - This paper focuses on the experimental analysts of Contract NET protocol for Multi-Robot task allocation. The problem domain consists of multiple vacuum cleaning robots that need to cooperate for cleaning an area that is beyond the capabilities of a single robot. A robot simulator has been used to experiment with various area and robot locations, and the summary of the effort required to process the tasks has been recorded. Experimental results show that using Contract NET protocol alone is not sufficient to achieve optimal results in task allocation. A more advanced strategy with or without involving the Contract NET protocol is required. Possible strategies are outlined and their analysis is the subject of the future work.

scholarly journals Ant Colony Intelligence in Flexible Manufacturing Scheduling Using Contract-Net Model

2011 ◽  
Vol 2-3 ◽  
pp. 608-613
Author(s):  
Ying Zi Wei ◽  
Yi Jun Feng ◽  
Kan Feng Gu
Keyword(s):  
Flexible Manufacturing ◽  
Manufacturing Systems ◽  
Ant Colony ◽  
Contract Net Protocol ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Contract Net ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
Bidding Mechanism ◽  
Alternative Processes ◽  
Alternative Machines

This paper builds an efficient agent-based flexible scheduling for real-world manufacturing systems. Considering the alternative processes and alternative machines, the allocation of manufacturing resources is achieved through negotiation among the job and machine agents in a multi-agent system (MAS). Ant Colony Intelligence (ACI) is proposed to be combined with Contract Net Protocol (CNP) so as to make agents adaptive to changing circumstances. ACI is integrated into both machine agents and job agents to solve the task allocation and sequencing problem. CNP is introduced to allow the agents to cooperate and coordinate their local schedules in order to find globally near-optimal robust schedules. The negotiation protocol is an interactive bidding mechanism based on the hybrid contract net protocol. The implementation of the issues using CNP model is discussed. Experimental results verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm integrated with ant-inspired coordination.

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