Scheduling tasks using combinatorial auctions: the MAGNET approach⋆

We consider the problem of rational, self-interested, economic agents who must negotiate with each other in a market environment in order to carry out their plans. Customer agents express their plans in the form of task networks with temporal and precedence constraints. A combinatorial reverse auction allows supplier agents to submit bids specifying prices for combinations of tasks, along with time windows and duration data that the customer may use to compose a work schedule. We describe the consequences of allowing the advertised task network to contain schedule infeasibilities, and show how to resolve them in the auction winner-determination process.