@inproceedings{PavlicPassino11d,
  author = {Theodore P.~Pavlic and Kevin M.~Passino},
  title = {Cooperative Task-Processing Networks},
  year = {2011},
  abstract = {This paper introduces a novel framework for the analysis and design of distributed agents that must complete externally generated tasks but also can volunteer to process tasks encountered by other agents. A distributed asynchronous volunteering policy is presented that dynamically adjusts task flow around the network of agents. It is shown that even though agents independently adjust their tendency to volunteer to process tasks from other agents, the set of all volunteering tendencies converges to the unique Nash equilibrium of a cooperation game. An artificial cooperation trading economy ensures that at the equilibrium, non-zero cooperation tendencies are possible and vary across agents. In particular, an agent with relatively high task-encounter rate not only provides more incentive for connected neighbors to cooperate with it but also has less incentive to volunteer to cooperate with other agents. The framework is shown via simulation to be applicable to autonomous air vehicles, and the mathematical results of the paper are also shown to be consistent with classic studies of cooperation from science.},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Networks of Cooperating Objects, {CONET}~2011},
  address = {Chicago, IL, USA},
  month = {April 11,}
}