Simultaneous coalition formation and task assignment in a real-time strategy game
Sammanfattning: In this thesis we present an algorithm that is designed to improve the collaborative capabilities of agents that operate in real-time multi-agent systems. Furthermore, we study the coalition formation and task assignment problems in the context of real-time strategy games. More specifically, we design and present a novel anytime algorithm for multi-agent cooperation that efficiently solves the simultaneous coalition formation and assignment problem, in which disjoint coalitions are formed and assigned to independent tasks simultaneously. This problem, that we denote the problem of collaboration formation, is a combinatorial optimization problem that has many real-world applications, including assigning disjoint groups of workers to regions or tasks, and forming cross-functional teams aimed at solving specific problems. The algorithm's performance is evaluated using randomized artificial problems sets of varying complexity and distribution, and also using Europa Universalis 4 – a commercial strategy game in which agents need to cooperate in order to effectively achieve their goals. The agents in such games are expected to decide on actions in real-time, and it is a difficult task to coordinate them. Our algorithm, however, solves the coordination problem in a structured manner. The results from the artificial problem sets demonstrates that our algorithm efficiently solves the problem of collaboration formation, and does so by automatically discarding suboptimal parts of the search space. For instance, in the easiest artificial problem sets with 12 agents and 8 tasks, our algorithm managed to find optimal solutions after only evaluating approximately 0.000003% of the possible solutions. In the hardest of the problem sets with 12 agents and 8 tasks, our algorithm managed to find a 80% efficient solution after only evaluating approximately 0.000006% of the possible solutions.
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