A combinatorial auction for collaborative planning

摘要: When rational, utility-maximizing agents encounter an opportunity to collaborate on a group activity they must determine whether commit that activity. We refer this problem as the initial-commitment decision (ICDP). The paper describes mechanism may use solve ICDP. is based combinatorial auction in which bid sets of roles activity, each role comprising constituent subtasks be done by same agent. Each specify constraints execution times it covers. This permits keep most details their individual schedules prior commitments private. reports results several experiments testing performance mechanism. These demonstrate significant improvement when are grouped into roles. They also show number time bids increases, probability there solution decreases, cost optimal (if one exists) and required find decreases. strategies might employ using