MAS_UP-UCT: A Multi-Agent System for University Course Timetable Scheduling
Keywords:
Intelligent agents, Multi-agent systems, Timetable schedulingAbstract
Many real-world applications are mapped into combinatorial problems. An example of such problem is timetable scheduling. In this case, the two basic characteristics can be defined by its distributed and dynamic environment. One efficient solution to solve this problem could be provided by an agent-based approach. A timetable scheduling problem can be modelled as a multi-agent system that provides the final schedule by taken into account all the restrictions. In this paper it is presented a preliminary research work that involves the development of a multi-agent system for university course timetable scheduling, named MAS_UP-UCT. We focus on the architecture of the multi-agent system, and on the evaluation of the communication process by using the interaction diagrams.References
L. Cernuzzi, T. Juan, L. Sterling, F. Zambonelli, The Gaia methodology - Basic Concepts and Extensions, Methodologies and Software Engineering for Agent Systems, eds. Bergenti, F., Gleizes, M.-P., Zambonelli, F., Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 69-88, 2004. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-8058-1_6
D. Corne, P. Ross, H.-L. Fang, Fast practical evolutionary timetabling, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, LNCS 865, pp. 251-263, 1994.
D. Costa, A tabu search algorithm for computing an operational timetable, European Journal of Operational Research, vol. 76, pp. 98-110, 1994. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0377-2217(94)90009-4
D. de Werra, An Introduction to Timetabling, European Journal of Operational Research, vol. 19, pp. 151-162, 1985. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0377-2217(85)90167-5
R. Fahrion, G. Dollanski, Construction of university faculty timetables using logic programming techniques, Discrete Applied Mathematics, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 221-236, 1992. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0166-218X(92)90246-7
M. -F. Huget, J. Odell, B. Bauer, The AUML Approach, Methodologies and Software Engineering for Agent Systems, eds. Bergenti, F., Gleizes, M.-P., Zambonelli, F., Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 237-257, 2004. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-8058-1_15
T. Ito, T. Shintani, An Agenda-scheduling System Based on Persuasion Among Agents, Technical report: Nagoya Institute of Technology, 1997.
M. Oprea, The Use of Adaptive Negotiation by a Shopping Agent in Agent-Mediated Electronic Commerce, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, LNAI 2691, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 594-605, 2003.
G. Picard, C. Bernon, M.-P. Gleizes, Cooperative Agent Model within ADELFE Framework An Application to a Timetabling Problem, Proceedings of The 3rd International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi Agent Systems, New York, USA, pp. 1506-1507, 2004.
E. G. Prodromou, N. Avouris, e-Class Personalized: Design and Evaluation of an Adaptive Learning Content Management System, Artificial Intelligence Applications and Innovations, eds. Maglogiannis, I., Karpouzis, K., Bramer, M., Springer, pp. 409-416, 2006.
R. Ronnquist, C. K. Low, Analysing Expert Assistants through Interaction Diagrams, Proceedings of Autonomous Agents 97, ACM Press, pp. 500-501, 1997.
A. Schaerf, A survey of automated timetabling, Technical report: CS-R9567, Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica, 1995.
C. C. Wei, A. Lim, Automated Examination Scheduling Problem, Proceedings of the IASTED International Conference Applied Informatics, Innsbruck, ACTA Press, pp. 93-96, 2002.
G. Weiss, Multiagent systems, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1999.
M. Wooldridge, N. R. Jennings, Intelligent agents: theory and practice, The Knowledge Engineering Review, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 115-152, 1995. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0269888900008122
Published
Issue
Section
License
ONLINE OPEN ACCES: Acces to full text of each article and each issue are allowed for free in respect of Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0.
You are free to:
-Share: copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format;
-Adapt: remix, transform, and build upon the material.
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
DISCLAIMER: The author(s) of each article appearing in International Journal of Computers Communications & Control is/are solely responsible for the content thereof; the publication of an article shall not constitute or be deemed to constitute any representation by the Editors or Agora University Press that the data presented therein are original, correct or sufficient to support the conclusions reached or that the experiment design or methodology is adequate.
