Naval Mine Countermeasure Missions

Undersea operations using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) provide a different and in some ways a more challenging problem than tasks for unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned ground vehicles. In particular, in undersea operations, communication windows are restricted, and bandwidth is limited. Consequently, coordination among agents is correspondingly more difficult. In traditional approaches, a central planner initially assigns subtasks to a set of AUVs to achieve the team goal. However, those initial task assignments may become inefficient during real-time execution because of the real-world issues such as failures. Therefore, initial task allocations are usually subject to change if efficiency is a high concern. Reallocations are needed and should be performed in a distributed manner. To provide such flexibility, we propose a distributed auction-based cooperation framework, distributed and efficient multirobot-cooperation framework (DEMiR-CF), which is an online dynamic task allocation (reallocation) system that aims to achieve a team goal while using resources effectively. DEMiR-CF, with integrated task scheduling and execution capabilities, can also respond to and recover from real-time contingencies such as communication failures, delays, range limitations, and robot failures.     

V2X通信中基于车辆分簇的资源分配机制

基于3GPP(3rd Generation Partnership Project)R15 SA WI阶段定义的两种V2X业务模型,在无基站覆盖区域进行自主资源选择时导致的碰撞和干扰问题,提出一种基于车辆分簇的资源分配机制。对场景中的所有车辆根据其地理位置和行驶方向进行分簇,根据车簇间的相对位置对所有车簇进行分组,进而划分不同的专属时隙资源;由每个簇中"头车"来担任资源协调与资源占用信息获取的角色。仿真结果表明,该机制在低时延要求场景下的性能较LTE-V2X现有自主资源选择的资源分配方式更优。     

Multi-agent collaboration in time-constrained domains

Timeliness is usually an indispensable attribute of planning and problem solving for resource allocation in command, control and communication systems. The success of such a system is judged on its ability to respond to scheduled and unscheduled tasks within a permissible time period. The response is based on a plan that covers the following activities: resource allocation, plan execution and monitoring and dynamic plan mending, if necessary. Decision making for resource selection can become very time consuming when there are many resources and the number of constraints is large. In a changing environment of multiple agents, restrictive organizational structures and strict communication protocols may cause intolerable further delays.Traditional approaches to planning in deterministic environments require a predictable amount of time to produce and execute plans. However, given more time, such systems usually cannot improve on the plans. In this paper we describe a multi-agent resource scheduler which uses a prioritized rule base to model decision making under the constraints of time. We also discuss dynamic scoping as a negotiation technique for inter-agent cooperation and constrained lattice-like communications as an optimized message routing strategy. Finally, we present some empirical results from a sequence of experiments.     

A novel approach for traffic accidents sanitary resource allocation based on multi-objective genetic algorithms

The development of communication technologies integrated in vehicles allows creating new protocols and applications to improve assistance in traffic accidents. Combining this technology with intelligent systems will permit to automate most of the decisions needed to generate the appropriate sanitary resource sets, thereby reducing the time from the occurrence of the accident to the stabilization and hospitalization of the injured passengers. However, generating the optimal allocation of sanitary resources is not an easy task, since there are several objectives that are mutually exclusive, such as assistance improvement, cost reduction, and balanced resource usage. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for the sanitary resources allocation in traffic accidents. Our approach is based on the use of multi-objective genetic algorithms, and it is able to generate a list of optimal solutions accounting for the most representative factors. The inputs to our model are: (i) the accident notification, which is obtained through vehicular communication systems, and (ii) the severity estimation for the accident, achieved through data mining. We evaluate our approach under a set of vehicular scenarios, and the results show that a memetic version of the NSGA-II algorithm was the most effective method at locating the optimal resource set, while maintaining enough variability in the solutions to allow applying different resource allocation policies.     

An abstract knowledge based approach to diagnosis and recovery of plan failure in multi-agent systems

Open multi-agent systems (MAS) are decentralised and distributed systems that consist of a large number of loosely coupled autonomous agents. In the absence of centralised control they tend to be difficult to manage, especially in an open environment, which is dynamic, complex, distributed and unpredictable. This dynamism and uncertainty in an open environment gives rise to unexpected plan failures. In this paper we present an abstract knowledge based approach for the diagnosis and recovery of plan action failures. Our approach associates a sentinel agent with each problem solving agent in order to monitor the problem solving agent’s interactions. The proposed approach also requires the problem solving agents to be able to report on the status of a plan’s actions.Once an exception is detected the sentinel agents start an investigation of the suspected agents. The sentinel agents collect information about the status of failed plan abstract actions and knowledge about agents’ mental attitudes regarding any failed plan. The sentinel agent then uses this abstract knowledge and the agents’ mental attitudes, to diagnose the underlying cause of the plan failure. The sentinel agent may ask the problem solving agent to retry their failed plan based on the diagnostic result.     

基于可修改区块链的互联网码号资源管理方案

为加强IP地址、自治域号等国际互联网码号资源的管理和控制,国际互联网工程任务组提出了互联网码号资源公钥基础设施,近年来有效解决路由劫持、路径篡改等问题,为保证域间路由稳定运行发挥了巨大作用.然而,它在互联网码号资源管理模式中存在的安全问题也逐渐突显,如单点故障、资源分配异常、证书撤销数据同步不及时造成验证失效等.本文针...     

A survey of approximability and inapproximability results for social welfare optimization in multiagent resource allocation

Multiagent resource allocation provides mechanisms to allocate bundles of resources to agents, where resources are assumed to be indivisible and nonshareable. A central goal is to maximize social welfare of such allocations, which can be measured in terms of the sum of utilities realized by the agents (utilitarian social welfare), in terms of their minimum (egalitarian social welfare), and in terms of their product (Nash product social welfare). Unfortunately, social welfare optimization is a computationally intractable task in many settings. We survey recent approximability and inapproximability results on social welfare optimization in multiagent resource allocation, focusing on the two most central representation forms for utility functions of agents, the bundle form and the k-additive form. In addition, we provide some new (in)approximability results on maximizing egalitarian social welfare and social welfare with respect to the Nash product when restricted to certain special cases.     

A multi-agent approach for integrated emergency vehicle dispatching and covering problem

The most important decisions that should be made by emergency vehicle managers are related to the allocation and the covering problems. The allocation (or dispatching) problem consists of deciding which vehicle must be assigned to assist an emergency in the best times. The covering problem aims at keeping the region under surveillance well-covered by relocating available vehicles. As components are geographically distributed, decentralized solution approaches may present several advantages. This paper develops a decentralized distributed solution approach based on multi-agent systems (MAS) to manage the emergency vehicles. The proposed system integrates the dispatching of vehicles to calls with zone coverage issues. This integration means that allocation and covering decisions are considered jointly. The idea of MAS has been applied in many others real-world contexts, and has been proven to provide more flexibility, reliability, adaptability and reconfigurability. To our knowledge, there is no existing work that uses MAS for real-time emergency vehicle allocation problem while accounting for the coverage requirements for future demands. We propose a multi-agent architecture that fit the real emergency systems, and that aims at keeping good performance compared to the centralized solution. The objective is to coordinate agents to reach good quality solutions in a distributed way. For this purpose two approaches are examined. The first one is used to show the impact of distributing data and control on the solution quality, since the dispatching decisions are based only on local evaluations of the fitness. The second approach is based on implicit agents' coordination using a more refined and efficient auction mechanism. The performance of each approach is compared to the centralized solution obtained by solving the proposed model with ILOG CPLEX solver. The obtained results show the importance of the coordination method to keep a good quality of service while distributing data and decision making, and prove the performance of the second approach.     

多Agent系统分布式问题求解的代数模型方法(Ⅰ): 社会行为、社会局势和社会动力学

该组论文提出一种新的代数模型方法，用于多Agent系统超分布超并行社会智能问题求解，该方法通过社会动力学和社会智能，统一地处理各种复杂的并行的社会行为，用于求解用常规方法难以处理的许多社会交互问题，本文是组合论文中第一篇，提出多Agent系统分布式问题求解的代数模型结构，讨论多Agent系统中典型社会行为模式及其性质，建立形式化描述，同时也论述了代数模型中的社会局势和社会动力学。     

Maximizing Convergence Speed for Second Order Consensus in Leaderless Multi-Agent Systems

The paper deals with the consensus problem in a leaderless network of agents that have to reach a common velocity while forming a uniformly spaced string. Moreover, the final common velocity (reference velocity) is determined by the agents in a distributed and leaderless way. Then, the consensus protocol parameters are optimized for networks characterized by a communication topology described by a class of directed graphs having a directed spanning tree, in order to maximize the convergence rate and avoid oscillations. The advantages of the optimized consensus protocol are enlightened by some simulation results and comparison with a protocol proposed in the related literature. The presented protocol can be applied to coordinate agents such as mobile robots, automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous vehicles that have to move with the same velocity and a common inter-space gap.      

数据操作系统中基于博弈的多资源分配算法

数据操作系统需要对CPU和内存等多种系统资源进行管理,为了在公平的前提下,解决不同用户对上述资源的不同需求问题,本文基于完全信息的动态博弈提出了ICEEI算法。该方法通过构建博弈树并优化博弈树的方法解决数据操作系统中的多资源分配问题。该算法最符合实际的假设是认为任务是不可分的,即数据操作系统分配给每个用户的资源可完全满足任务的需求。对该算法的公平性进行了讨论,指出其满足共享激励和Pareto有效等性质。通过一系列的仿真实验,证明ICEEI可以很好地应对用户对资源需求的动态变化,并且与DRF相比在有些情况下具有更高的资源利用率。     

LEARNING AND COORDINATION FOR AUTONOMOUS INTERSECTION CONTROL

Future urban road traffic management is an example of a socially relevant problem that can be modeled as a large-scale, open, distributed system, composed of many autonomous interacting agents, which need to be controlled in a decentralized manner. In this context, advanced, reservation-based, intersection control—where autonomous vehicles controlled entirely by agents interact with a coordination facility that controls an intersection, to avoid collisions and minimize delays—will be a possible scenario in the near future. In this article, we seize the opportunities for multiagent learning offered by such a scenario, studying i) how vehicles, when approaching a reservation-based intersection, can coordinate their actions in order to improve their crossing times, and therefore, speed up the traffic flow through the intersection, and ii) how a set of reservation-based intersections can cooperatively act over an entire network of intersections in order to minimize travel times.     

基于混合蚁群算法的MAS任务分配*

在MAS（多agent系统）中,由于任务的复杂性和agent求解问题能力的不同,任务和agent不再是传统的一对一的关系。为解决MAS的任务分配问题,提出了任务与agent之间多对多的任务分配模式。首先建立了任务分配的数学模型,并导出分配优化的目标函数;其次利用混合蚁群算法快速收敛和分布式求解的特点实现任务分配的组合优化。对实验仿真的结果分析表明,多对多的任务分配模式能够明显提升多agent系统的性能。     

Optimization-based resource allocation in communication networks

The continuously growing number of applications competing for resources in current communication networks highlights the necessity for efficient resource allocation mechanisms to maximize user satisfaction. Optimization Theory can provide the necessary tools to develop such mechanisms that will allocate network resources optimally and fairly among users. The aim of this paper is to provide a starting point for researchers interested in applying optimization techniques in the resource allocation problem for current communication networks. To achieve that we, first, describe the fundamental optimization theory tools necessary to design optimal resource allocation algorithms. Then, we describe the Network Utility Maximization (NUM) framework, a framework that has already found numerous applications in network optimization, along with some recent advancements of the initial NUM framework. Finally, we summarize some of our recent work in the area and discuss some of the remaining research challenges towards the development of a complete optimization-based resource allocation protocol.     

一种面向服务的暗标拍卖网格资源分配方法

针对计算网格环境下资源的动态性、异构性和自治性，以及应用经济机制解决资源分配问题的优势，以面向服务的思想，提出了一个基于OGSA的架构的网格服务市场的资源分配框架SBAGRM，在此框架下给出了暗标拍卖的模型，并对暗标拍卖博弈的Bayes均衡点以及系统在均衡状态的效率，策略和效用进行了分析，最后给出了基于道格拉斯效用函数的分配算法。     

Design and implementation of economics-based resource management system in ad hoc grid

The ad hoc grid is a spontaneous organization of cooperating heterogeneous nodes into a logical community without a fixed infrastructure and with only minimal administrative requirements. Resource management for ad hoc grids is challenging due to the participation of heterogeneous, dynamic, autonomous and ephemeral grid nodes. The paper proposes an ad hoc grid resource management system, the producers and consumers of ad hoc grid resource are modeled as the self-interested decision-makers described in microeconomic theory. All market participants in the ad hoc grid environment including grid resources and services can be represented as agents. We apply economic agents to build ad hoc grid resource management, where ad hoc grid resource consumers and providers can buy and sell ad hoc grid resource based on an underlying economic architecture. The main processes involved in ad hoc grid resource management are resource registration, discovery, and resource allocation. The experiments are conducted to compare ad hoc grid resource allocation algorithm with other ad hoc grid resource allocation algorithm. Simulation results show that our proposed algorithm is more efficient than compared allocation scheme.     

On the Application of Game-Theoretic Mechanism Design for Resource Allocation in Multimedia Systems

In this paper, we study the system-level computational resource allocation problem among multiple multimedia tasks. We consider the multimedia tasks to be autonomous, i.e., they are selfish and behave strategically. We propose a resource allocation framework based on mechanism design to prevent the tasks from behaving strategically and manipulating the available system resources. We apply two mechanisms in the framework and assess their advantages over proportional-share resource allocation algorithms, which are often used in multimedia systems. We show in the simulations that the incorporation of mechanism design for system resource allocation is a promising solution that achieves efficient, fair and robust allocation against manipulation from strategic applications.      

一种多智能体系统任务竞争模型及算法研究

致力于解决多智能体系统中的任务分配问题，基于社会生活中的竞争现象提出了一种多智能体竞争模型，同时提出了解决多智能体任务分配的详细算法．文章引入博弈论来研究存在相互外部约束条件下的个体选择问题．为了克服求解纳什均衡点的复杂性，本文采用了一步纳什均衡的方法．仿真结果证明了本模型的合理性和算法的有效性．     

Credit-based scheme for security-aware and fairness-aware resource allocation in cloud computing

Cloud computing systems include different types of participants with varied requirements for resources and multiple tasks; these varying requirements must be considered in the design of fairness-aware resource allocation schemes for better resources sharing. However, some participants may be malicious with a goal to damage the resource allocation fairness and increase their own utility. Hence, the resource scheduling policy must guarantee allocation fairness among the participants; further, it must ensure that fairness is not affected by the malicious usage of resources, that could cause resource exhaustion and lead to denial of service. In order to address this challenge, we propose a credit-based mechanism for resource allocation that will avoid the malicious usage of resources and, simultaneously, guarantee allocation fairness. In our scheme, a credit factor is introduced for each participant in order to evaluate the history of resource utilization and determine future resource allocation. Our model encourages a participant to release the occupied resources in timely manner after the completion of a task and imposes a punishment for malicious occupation of resources. We prove the fairness of our model and provide linear and variable gradient approaches to determine the credit factor for different scenarios. We simulate our model and perform experiments on a real cloud computing platform. The results prove the rationality, effectiveness and correctness of our approaches.     

基于QMix的车辆云计算资源动态分配方法

城市交通智能化和通信技术的进步会产生大量基于车辆的应用,但目前车辆有限的计算资源无法满足车辆应用的计算需求与延迟性约束。车辆云（VC）可以高效地调度资源,从而显著降低任务请求的延迟与传输成本。针对VC环境下任务卸载与计算资源分配问题,提出一个考虑异质车辆和异质任务的计计资源分配算法。对到达的任务构建M/M/1队列模型与计算模型,并定义一个效用函数以最大化系统整体效用。针对环境中车辆地理分布的高度动态系统变化,提出基于双时间尺度的二次资源分配机制（SRA）,使用两个不同时间尺度的资源分配决策动作,对其分别构建部分可观测马尔可夫决策过程。两个决策动作通过执行各自的策略获得的奖励进行连接,将问题建模为两层计算资源分配问题。在此基础上提出基于二次资源分配机制的多智能体算法SRA-QMix求解最优策略。仿真结果表明,与深度确定性策略梯度算法对比,该算法的整体效用值和任务完成率分别提高了70%、6%,对于QMix和MADDPG算法分别应用SRA后的任务完成率分别提高了13%与15%,可适用于动态的计算资源分配环境。