Multi agent system for resource allocation and monitoring

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to present a model that uses Multi Agent Technology to assist Fund Allocating Agencies (FAA) to allocate limited funds to most deserving among competing organizations called Fund Seekers (FS) and monitoring the utilization of allocated funds. These funds are given to execute their projects in Research and Development or to impart quality education. In India, the beneficiaries of this system are likely to be those organizations that allocate funds like University Grant Commission (UGC), Department of Science and Technology, Department of Information Technology and FS that avail funds, could be any university or college. To manage decision-making in such a distributed environment, a Multi Agent System (MAS) for resource allocation was designed. Five agents were identified. One agent, called Coordinator Agent has been designed to perform task of helping FS to find sources of funds available depending on nature of projects, second agent called Fund Allocating Agency Agent has been designed to provide the funds, third agent called Fund Allocator Agent has been designed to allocate funds, fourth agent called Fund Seeker has been designed to avail the funds and lastly Monitor Agent has been designed to monitor the progress of utilization of funds. MAS, methodology are used to model the problem. It consists of number of agents that interact with one another. An Agent is an autonomous entity that performs a given task using information gathered from its environment to act in a suitable manner so as to complete the task successfully. This paper describes the steps carried out to model the problem. To implement the model, physical computing and network infrastructure are required. Key words: Agents, multi agent system, funds allocation, decision making, distributed environment.