A New Composite-Spring-Net-Based Approach to Distributed Problem Solving in Multi-Agent System
Shuai Dian · Chinese Journal of Computers · 2002
So far there are various methods for coalition formation and problem solving in multi-gent system (MAS), but most of them have very high computational complexity and many limitations. This paper presents a new approach to distributed problem solving for MAS, which makes use of the distributed elastic dynamics of a composite spring network model. By presented approach, the process of problem solving for MAS is transformed into a deformation process of the corresponding composite spring network. The approach can deal with various complicated social interactions occurred among agents in MAS and can describe the behavior dynamics involved in quite different autonomy between individual agents, which may be formidably difficult problems to solve by using other traditional methods. The simulation and comparison with Shehory-Kraus's algorithm demonstrate many advantages of the proposed approach.