HS-CAI: A Hybrid DCOP Algorithm via Combining Search with Context-Based Inference

Authors

  • Dingding Chen Chongqing University
  • Yanchen Deng Nanyang Technological University
  • Ziyu Chen Chongqing University
  • Wenxing Zhang Chongqing University
  • Zhongshi He Chongqing University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v34i05.6195

Abstract

Search and inference are two main strategies for optimally solving Distributed Constraint Optimization Problems (DCOPs). Recently, several algorithms were proposed to combine their advantages. Unfortunately, such algorithms only use an approximated inference as a one-shot preprocessing phase to construct the initial lower bounds which lead to inefficient pruning under the limited memory budget. On the other hand, iterative inference algorithms (e.g., MB-DPOP) perform a context-based complete inference for all possible contexts but suffer from tremendous traffic overheads. In this paper, (i) hybridizing search with context-based inference, we propose a complete algorithm for DCOPs, named HS-CAI where the inference utilizes the contexts derived from the search process to establish tight lower bounds while the search uses such bounds for efficient pruning and thereby reduces contexts for the inference. Furthermore, (ii) we introduce a context evaluation mechanism to select the context patterns for the inference to further reduce the overheads incurred by iterative inferences. Finally, (iii) we prove the correctness of our algorithm and the experimental results demonstrate its superiority over the state-of-the-art.

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Published

2020-04-03

How to Cite

Chen, D., Deng, Y., Chen, Z., Zhang, W., & He, Z. (2020). HS-CAI: A Hybrid DCOP Algorithm via Combining Search with Context-Based Inference. Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 34(05), 7087-7094. https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v34i05.6195

Issue

Section

AAAI Technical Track: Multiagent Systems