Title: Computational efficiencies for multi-agents: a look at a multi-agent system for sailor assignment

Authors: Jay Liebowitz, James Simien

Addresses: Graduate Division of Business and Management, Department of Information Technology, Johns Hopkins University, 9605 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20850, USA. ' Navy Personnel Research, Studies, and Technology (NPRST), Navy Personnel Command, 5720 Integrity Drive, Millington, TN 38055, USA

Abstract: The leadership of the US Navy has undertaken a sweeping modernisation of the Navy|s human resources system. A concentrated effort is aimed specifically at transforming the enlisted personnel assignment process. This process is enormously complicated and uses very complex business rules. To facilitate the transformation of the personnel assignment process, a web-based multi-agent system is being developed at NPRST (Navy Personnel Research, Studies, and Technology) to perform sailor assignment. Two of the many challenges facing this project lie in determining both the scalability and the computational efficiency of the proposed system. After conducting a literature review, several possible system architectures were identified and proposed as alternatives for implementation. This paper examines the competing approaches from among those found in the literature and evaluates them using the Analytic Hierarchy Process. The recommendations resulting from this analysis are to be tested in the future.

Keywords: analytical hierarchy process; AHP; e-government; electronic government; multi-agents; sailor assignment; agent-based systems; web-based multi-agent systems; United States Navy; personnel assignment.

DOI: 10.1504/EG.2005.008330

Electronic Government, an International Journal, 2005 Vol.2 No.4, pp.384 - 402

Published online: 05 Dec 2005 *

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