Protocol-Based Multi-Agent Systems: Examining the Effect of Diversity, Dynamism, and Cooperation in Heuristic Optimization Approaches

Many heuristic optimization approaches have been developed to combat the ever-increasing complexity of engineering problems. In general, these approaches can be classified based on the diversity of the search strategies used, the amount of change in these search strategies during the optimization process, and the level of cooperation between these strategies. A review of the literature indicates that approaches that are simultaneously very diverse, highly dynamic, and cooperative are rare but have immense potential for finding high quality final solutions. In this work, a taxonomy of heuristic optimization approaches is introduced and used to motivate a new approach called protocol-based multi-agent systems. This approach is found to produce final solutions of much higher quality when its implementation includes the use of multiple search protocols, the adaptation of these protocols during the optimization, and the cooperation between these protocols than when these characteristics are absent.