24,432 research outputs found
Hedonic Coalition Formation for Distributed Task Allocation among Wireless Agents
Autonomous wireless agents such as unmanned aerial vehicles or mobile base
stations present a great potential for deployment in next-generation wireless
networks. While current literature has been mainly focused on the use of agents
within robotics or software applications, we propose a novel usage model for
self-organizing agents suited to wireless networks. In the proposed model, a
number of agents are required to collect data from several arbitrarily located
tasks. Each task represents a queue of packets that require collection and
subsequent wireless transmission by the agents to a central receiver. The
problem is modeled as a hedonic coalition formation game between the agents and
the tasks that interact in order to form disjoint coalitions. Each formed
coalition is modeled as a polling system consisting of a number of agents which
move between the different tasks present in the coalition, collect and transmit
the packets. Within each coalition, some agents can also take the role of a
relay for improving the packet success rate of the transmission. The proposed
algorithm allows the tasks and the agents to take distributed decisions to join
or leave a coalition, based on the achieved benefit in terms of effective
throughput, and the cost in terms of delay. As a result of these decisions, the
agents and tasks structure themselves into independent disjoint coalitions
which constitute a Nash-stable network partition. Moreover, the proposed
algorithm allows the agents and tasks to adapt the topology to environmental
changes such as the arrival/removal of tasks or the mobility of the tasks.
Simulation results show how the proposed algorithm improves the performance, in
terms of average player (agent or task) payoff, of at least 30.26% (for a
network of 5 agents with up to 25 tasks) relatively to a scheme that allocates
nearby tasks equally among agents.Comment: to appear, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computin
Game Theoretic Approaches to Massive Data Processing in Wireless Networks
Wireless communication networks are becoming highly virtualized with
two-layer hierarchies, in which controllers at the upper layer with tasks to
achieve can ask a large number of agents at the lower layer to help realize
computation, storage, and transmission functions. Through offloading data
processing to the agents, the controllers can accomplish otherwise prohibitive
big data processing. Incentive mechanisms are needed for the agents to perform
the controllers' tasks in order to satisfy the corresponding objectives of
controllers and agents. In this article, a hierarchical game framework with
fast convergence and scalability is proposed to meet the demand for real-time
processing for such situations. Possible future research directions in this
emerging area are also discussed
Game-theoretic Resource Allocation Methods for Device-to-Device (D2D) Communication
Device-to-device (D2D) communication underlaying cellular networks allows
mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets to use the licensed spectrum
allocated to cellular services for direct peer-to-peer transmission. D2D
communication can use either one-hop transmission (i.e., in D2D direct
communication) or multi-hop cluster-based transmission (i.e., in D2D local area
networks). The D2D devices can compete or cooperate with each other to reuse
the radio resources in D2D networks. Therefore, resource allocation and access
for D2D communication can be treated as games. The theories behind these games
provide a variety of mathematical tools to effectively model and analyze the
individual or group behaviors of D2D users. In addition, game models can
provide distributed solutions to the resource allocation problems for D2D
communication. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the applications of
game-theoretic models to study the radio resource allocation issues in D2D
communication. The article also outlines several key open research directions.Comment: Accepted. IEEE Wireless Comms Mag. 201
MULTIAGENT SYSTEMS FOR SHOP FLOOR ARHITECTURE MANAGEMENT
The paper presents the problem of shop floor agility. In order to cope with the disturbances and uncertainties that characterise the current business scenarios faced by manufacturing companies, the capability of their shop floors needs to be improved quickly, such that these shop floors may be adapted, changed or become easily modifiable (shop floor reengineering). One of the critical elements in any shop floor reengineering process is the way the control/supervision architecture is changed or modified to accommodate for the new process and equipment. This paper, therefore, proposes an multi-agent architecture to support the fast adaptation or changes in the control/supervision architecture.multi-agent system, shop floor agility, control/supervision architecture, virtual organisation.
Design of an UAV swarm
This master thesis tries to give an overview on the general aspects involved in the design of an UAV swarm. UAV swarms are continuoulsy gaining popularity amongst researchers and UAV manufacturers, since they allow greater success rates in task accomplishing with reduced times. Appart from this, multiple UAVs cooperating between them opens a new field of missions that can only be carried in this way. All the topics explained within this master thesis will explain all the agents involved in the design of an UAV swarm, from the communication protocols between them, navigation and trajectory analysis and task allocation
The Viability of Domain Constrained Coalition Formation for Robotic Collectives
Applications, such as military and disaster response, can benefit from
robotic collectives' ability to perform multiple cooperative tasks (e.g.,
surveillance, damage assessments) efficiently across a large spatial area.
Coalition formation algorithms can potentially facilitate collective robots'
assignment to appropriate task teams; however, most coalition formation
algorithms were designed for smaller multiple robot systems (i.e., 2-50
robots). Collectives' scale and domain-relevant constraints (i.e.,
distribution, near real-time, minimal communication) make coalition formation
more challenging. This manuscript identifies the challenges inherent to
designing coalition formation algorithms for very large collectives (e.g., 1000
robots). A survey of multiple robot coalition formation algorithms finds that
most are unable to transfer directly to collectives, due to the identified
system differences; however, auctions and hedonic games may be the most
transferable. A simulation-based evaluation of three auction and hedonic game
algorithms, applied to homogeneous and heterogeneous collectives, demonstrates
that there are collective compositions for which no existing algorithm is
viable; however, the experimental results and literature survey suggest paths
forward.Comment: 46 pages, 9 figures, Swarm Intelligence (under review
Ontology acquisition and exchange of evolutionary product-brokering agents
Agent-based electronic commerce (e-commerce) has been booming with the development of the Internet and agent technologies. However, little effort has been devoted to exploring the learning and evolving capabilities of software agents. This paper addresses issues of evolving software agents in e-commerce applications. An agent structure with evolution features is proposed with a focus on internal hierarchical knowledge. We argue that knowledge base of agents should be the cornerstone for their evolution capabilities, and agents can enhance their knowledge bases by exchanging knowledge with other agents. In this paper, product ontology is chosen as an instance of knowledge base. We propose a new approach to facilitate ontology exchange among e-commerce agents. The ontology exchange model and its formalities are elaborated. Product-brokering agents have been designed and implemented, which accomplish the ontology exchange process from request to integration
Exploiting Heterogeneity in Networks of Aerial and Ground Robotic Agents
By taking advantage of complementary communication technologies, distinct sensing functionalities and varied motion dynamics present in a heterogeneous multi-robotic network, it is possible to accomplish a main mission objective by assigning specialized sub-tasks to specific members of a robotic team. An adequate selection of the team members and an effective coordination are some of the challenges to fully exploit the unique capabilities that these types of systems can offer. Motivated by real world applications, we focus on a multi-robotic network consisting off aerial and ground agents which has the potential to provide critical support to humans in complex settings. For instance, aerial robotic relays are capable of transporting small ground mobile sensors to expand the communication range and the situational awareness of first responders in hazardous environments. In the first part of this dissertation, we extend work on manipulation of cable-suspended loads using aerial robots by solving the problem of lifting the cable-suspended load from the ground before proceeding to transport it. Since the suspended load-quadrotor system experiences switching conditions during this critical maneuver, we define a hybrid system and show that it is differentially-flat. This property facilitates the design of a nonlinear controller which tracks a waypoint-based trajectory associated with the discrete states of the hybrid system. In addition, we address the case of unknown payload mass by combining a least-squares estimation method with the designed controller. Second, we focus on the coordination of a heterogeneous team formed by a group of ground mobile sensors and a flying communication router which is deployed to sense areas of interest in a cluttered environment. Using potential field methods, we propose a controller for the coordinated mobility of the team to guarantee inter-robot and obstacle collision avoidance as well as connectivity maintenance among the ground agents while the main goal of sensing is carried out. For the case of the aerial communications relays, we combine antenna diversity with reinforcement learning to dynamically re-locate these relays so that the received signal strength is maintained above a desired threshold. Motivated by the recent interest of combining radio frequency and optical wireless communications, we envision the implementation of an optical link between micro-scale aerial and ground robots. This type of link requires maintaining a sufficient relative transmitter-receiver position for reliable communications. In the third part of this thesis, we tackle this problem. Based on the link model, we define a connectivity cone where a minimum transmission rate is guaranteed. For example, the aerial robot has to track the ground vehicle to stay inside this cone. The control must be robust to noisy measurements. Thus, we use particle filters to obtain a better estimation of the receiver position and we design a control algorithm for the flying robot to enhance the transmission rate. Also, we consider the problem of pairing a ground sensor with an aerial vehicle, both equipped with a hybrid radio-frequency/optical wireless communication system. A challenge is positioning the flying robot within optical range when the sensor location is unknown. Thus, we take advantage of the hybrid communication scheme by developing a control strategy that uses the radio signal to guide the aerial platform to the ground sensor. Once the optical-based signal strength has achieved a certain threshold, the robot hovers within optical range. Finally, we investigate the problem of building an alliance of agents with different skills in order to satisfy the requirements imposed by a given task. We find this alliance, known also as a coalition, by using a bipartite graph in which edges represent the relation between agent capabilities and required resources for task execution. Using this graph, we build a coalition whose total capability resources can satisfy the task resource requirements. Also, we study the heterogeneity of the formed coalition to analyze how it is affected for instance by the amount of capability resources present in the agents
A survey on intelligent computation offloading and pricing strategy in UAV-Enabled MEC network: Challenges and research directions
The lack of resource constraints for edge servers makes it difficult to simultaneously perform a large number of Mobile Devices’ (MDs) requests. The Mobile Network Operator (MNO) must then select how to delegate MD queries to its Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) server in order to maximize the overall benefit of admitted requests with varying latency needs. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Artificial Intelligent (AI) can increase MNO performance because of their flexibility in deployment, high mobility of UAV, and efficiency of AI algorithms. There is a trade-off between the cost incurred by the MD and the profit received by the MNO. Intelligent computing offloading to UAV-enabled MEC, on the other hand, is a promising way to bridge the gap between MDs' limited processing resources, as well as the intelligent algorithms that are utilized for computation offloading in the UAV-MEC network and the high computing demands of upcoming applications. This study looks at some of the research on the benefits of computation offloading process in the UAV-MEC network, as well as the intelligent models that are utilized for computation offloading in the UAV-MEC network. In addition, this article examines several intelligent pricing techniques in different structures in the UAV-MEC network. Finally, this work highlights some important open research issues and future research directions of Artificial Intelligent (AI) in computation offloading and applying intelligent pricing strategies in the UAV-MEC network
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