Cooperative Task Execution in Multi-Agent Systems

Abstract

We propose a multi-agent system that enables groups of agents to collaborate and work autonomously to execute tasks. Groups can work in a decentralized manner and can adapt to dynamic changes in the environment. Groups of agents solve assigned tasks by exploring the solution space cooperatively based on the highest reward first. The tasks have a dependency structure associated with them. We rigorously evaluated the performance of the system and the individual group performance using centralized and decentralized control approaches for task distribution. Based on the results, the centralized approach is more efficient for systems with a less-dependent system $G_{18}$ (a well-known program graph that contains $18$ nodes with few links), while the decentralized approach performs better for systems with a highly-dependent system $G_{40}$ (a program graph that contains $40$ highly interlinked nodes). We also evaluated task allocation to groups that do not have interdependence. Our findings reveal that there was significantly less difference in the number of tasks allocated to each group in a less-dependent system than in a highly-dependent one. The experimental results showed that a large number of small-size cooperative groups of agents unequivocally improved the system's performance compared to a small number of large-size cooperative groups of agents. Therefore, it is essential to identify the optimal group size for a system to enhance its performance.