Distributed Problem Solving

Distributed Problem Solving

Distributed problem solving is a subfield of Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) that focuses on developing protocols that allow agents to create solutions to a shared problem.   In the CNAS lab, we develop protocols that solve myriad distributed problems including:

• Distributed resource allocation
• Distributed constraint satisfaction
• Distributed constraint optimization

From this work, we have developed a number of best-of-the-breed hill-climbing and cooperative mediation-based protocols including:

• Asynchronous Partial Overlay (APO)
• Optimal Asynchronous Partial Overlay (OptAPO)
• Distributed Probabilistic Protocol (DPP)
• Numerous dynamic variants of existing protocols (DynDBA, DynDSA, DynAPO)

Most recently we have developed new theoretical methods for analyzing these protocols based on thermodynamic theory.