Title: Robust team decision-making under uncertainty

Authors: Nalan Gulpinar, Ethem Canakoglu, Jo Thoms

Addresses: Warwick Business School, The University of Warwick, CV4 7AL, UK. ' Warwick Business School, The University of Warwick, CV4 7AL, UK. ' BaE Systems, Integrated System Technologies Limited, Lyon Way, Frimley, Camberley, Surrey, GU16 7EX, UK

Abstract: This paper is concerned with multi-agent team modelling and robust decision-making problems arising in mission planning under uncertainty. We consider multi-agent planning problem with task coordination using stochastic programming. Agents within a centralised team cooperate so that the expected team performance is maximised. The success of each agent to accomplish any task is critical for the team performance. Inaccuracy on estimation of uncertain success probability is addressed using robust optimisation where different uncertainty sets are considered. Robust optimisation computes the optimal task allocation simultaneously with worst-case by taking into account of all scenarios. The computational results show trade-off between team efficiency and robustness of solution.

Keywords: decision making; uncertainty; task assignment; robust optimisation; military teamwork; artificial autonomous agents; multi-agent team modelling; multi-agent planning; task coordination; stochastic programming; team efficiency; unmanned vehicles; multi-agent systems; MAS; agent-based systems.

DOI: 10.1504/IJADS.2010.036099

International Journal of Applied Decision Sciences, 2010 Vol.3 No.3, pp.206 - 220

Published online: 19 Oct 2010 *

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