MTAP-MaSim: A Multi-agent Simulator for the Mobile Task Allocation Problem

While two main approaches, namely the centralized and the market-based approaches, have been used and compared in the literature for task allocation problems, uncertainty and dynamism imposed in the mobile task allocation problem (MTAPs) require new techniques for comparing these two approaches due to the limitations of traditional mathematical modeling techniques. This paper proposes an in-progress work on a multi-agent based simulator (MTAP-MaSim) to compare centralized and market based approaches for the MTAP. The fundamental features and structure of MTAPs are presented and the simulation model of MTAP-MaSim is described. Then the basic random models for both approaches are compared to test MTAP-MaSim feasibility. Finally the future research direction is proposed to conclude the paper.