A Particle Swarm with Local Decision Algorithm for Functional Distributed Constraint Optimization Problems

Functional Distributed Constraint Optimization Problems (F-DCOPs) are a constraint processing framework for continuous variables in the multi-agent system. Particle swarm optimization-based F-DCOP (PFD) is a population-based algorithm to solve F-DCOP collaboratively. Although it can significantly reduce the computational overhead and memory requirements, its solution depends on the decision of root agent in the Breadth First Search (BFS) pseudo-tree and it is easy to fall into local optimum. To solve the above problems, this paper designed an improved PFD algorithm with Local Decision named PFD-LD, which effectively reduces the dependence on root agent through local decision. In addition, a mutation operator is used to avoid falling into local optimum. It is proved that PFD-LD is an anytime algorithm and local decision can expand the search of the solution space. Finally, the extensive experiments based on four types of benchmark problems show that the proposed algorithm outperforms state-of-the-art F-DCOP solving algorithms.