Design of automated negotiation mechanisms for decentralized heterogeneous machine scheduling

The determination of a beneficial solution, i.e., a respective contract in terms of a common schedule, is particularly difficult due to information asymmetry and self-interested behavior of the involved agents. The agents intend to minimize their individual costs that consist of tardiness cost and their share of the machine operating cost.

The aim of this study is to find socially beneficial outcomes by means of negotiation mechanisms that comply with decentralized information and conflicting interests. For this purpose, we present an automated negotiation protocol, which is inspired by metaheuristics, along with a set of optional building blocks. In the protocol, new solutions are iteratively generated, as mutations of a single provisional contract, and proposed to the agents, while feasible rules with quotas restrict the acceptance decisions of the agents.