Multi-Agent Resource Allocation (MARA) for modeling construction processes

Multi-agent resource allocation (MARA) is a field developing solutions to the problem of distributing a number of resources amongst multiple agents. This field has inter-disciplinary characteristics and relates to a wide range of applications, such as industrial procurement, scheduling and network routing. Many construction operations involve entities sharing and competing for limited resources. The decision to allocate these resources to entities usually has a significant impact on the schedule and cost of these operations. The dynamic and continuously changing nature of construction operations justifies the need for decision support tools with high adaptability and handling of uncertainty which is featured by MARA. This paper presents the main elements and techniques in MARA and discusses a sample case applying these techniques for the modeling of industrial construction assembly processes, also presents the conceptual model of the sample case and a prototype implementation of that model using Repast multi-agent simulation package.