Distributed Bayesian: A Continuous Distributed Constraint Optimization Problem Solver

Fransman, Jeroen (a:1:{s:5:"en_US";s:30:"Delft University of Technology";}) | Sijs, Joris | Dol, Henry | Theunissen, Erik | De Schutter, Bart

Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research 

In this paper, the novel Distributed Bayesian (D-Bay) algorithm is presented for solving multi-agent problems within the Continuous Distributed Constraint Optimization Problem (C-DCOP) framework. This framework extends the classical DCOP framework towards utility functions with continuous domains. D-Bay solves a C-DCOP by utilizing Bayesian optimization for the adaptive sampling of variables. We theoretically show that D-Bay converges to the global optimum of the C-DCOP for Lipschitz continuous utility functions. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated empirically based on the sample efficiency. The proposed algorithm is compared to state-of-the-art DCOP and C-DCOP solvers. The algorithm generates better solutions while requiring fewer samples.