Distributed constraint optimization with structured resource constraints

Distributed constraint optimization (DCOP) provides a framework for coordinated decision making by a team of agents. Often, during the decision making, capacity constraints on agents’ resource consumption must be taken into account. To address such scenarios, an extension of DCOP- Resource Constrained DCOP- has been proposed. However, certain type of resources have an additional structure associated with them and exploiting it can result in more efficient algorithms than possible with a general framework. An example of these are distribution networks, where the flow of a commodity from sources to sinks is limited by the flow capacity of edges. We present a new model of structured resource constraints that exploits the acyclicity and the flow conservation property of distribution networks. We show how this model can be used in efficient algorithms for finding the optimal flow configuration in distribution networks, an essential problem in managing power distribution networks. E...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: ATAL
• Authors: Akshat Kumar, Boi Faltings, Adrian Petcu
• Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, ATAL 2009, Decision Making, Distributed Constraint Optimization, Distribution Networks