- Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
- Vol: 21 Issue: 4
- Capability-based task allocation in emergency-response environments: a coalition-formation approach
Capability-based task allocation in emergency-response environments: a coalition-formation approach
Authors : Afsaneh Fatemi, Kamran Zamanifar, Naser Nematbakhsh
Pages : 1166-1181
Doi:10.3906/elk-1105-49
View : 7 | Download : 2
Publication Date : 9999-12-31
Article Type : Makaleler
Abstract :This paper addresses coalition formation, based on agent capabilities, centered on task allocation in emergency-response environments (EREs). EREs are environments that need fast task completion as their main requirement. We propose a team-based organization model, based on an existing organization model for adaptive complex systems. The model has some key characteristics that are beneficial for EREs: agents act in dynamic, open domains; agents collaborate in completing group tasks; agents may have similar types of capabilities, but at different levels; tasks need different agent capabilities, at collective different levels; and agents are supervised in a partially decentralized manner. We formulate task allocation as a capability-based coalition-formation problem, propose a greedy myopic algorithm to form coalitions, and compare it with F-Max-Sum, another efficient myopic algorithm. Experiments in which utility is measured show that the capability-based approach outperforms the role-based one. The numerical experiments suggest that the proposed task allocation method is possibly scalable with growing numbers of agents.Keywords : Coalition formation, emergency-response environment, task allocation, team-based organization, capability-based task allocation