Parallel and Distributed Simulation of Coalition Structure Generation in Cooperative Multi-agent Systems

Multi-agent systems (MAS) consist of autonomous agents that interact to solve interrelated problems. If agents collaborate to optimize the overall outcome, then the system is cooperative. We designed COALA, a new simulation tool for the study of massively populated MAS and specifically for the modeling of coalition structure generation. The COALA implementation is based on the advanced RTI system (ARTIS) distributed simulation middleware and takes advantage of a new load balancing framework for distributed simulation, the generic adaptive interaction architecture (GAIA+). The main task of GAIA+ is the dynamic and adaptive load balancing of computation and communication in parallel and distributed simulation environments. Dynamic coalition structure generation constitutes a novel complex setting where to work with such tools.