Efficency and Incentives in MAS-Coordination

This paper focuses on market-like coordination mechanisms in Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) and business planning has been chosen as the application area. Several fundamental criteria are derived in order to evaluate marketlike coordination mechanisms. The central criterion is the efficient allocation of jobs to agents. Assuming a relationship between classes of operational planning problems and certain coordination mechanisms, planning problems are first classified on the basis of their relevant attributes. Secondly, adequate coordination mechanisms for each of these classes are introduced on the basis of auction theory. All these mechanisms prove to have a common basis: the Vickrey auction.