Collective decision making in dynamic environments
Article
Prasetyo, J., De Masi, G. and Ferrante, E. 2019. Collective decision making in dynamic environments. Swarm Intelligence. 13 (3-4), pp. 217-243. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11721-019-00169-8
Type | Article |
---|---|
Title | Collective decision making in dynamic environments |
Authors | Prasetyo, J., De Masi, G. and Ferrante, E. |
Abstract | Collective decision making is the ability of individuals to jointly make a decision without any centralized leadership, but only relying on local interactions. A special case is represented by the best-of-n problem, whereby the swarm has to select the best option among a set of n discrete alternatives. In this paper, we perform a thorough study of the best-of-n problem in dynamic environments, in the presence of two options (n=2). Site qualities can be directly measured by agents, and we introduce abrupt changes to these qualities. We introduce two adaptation mechanisms to deal with dynamic site qualities: stubborn agents and spontaneous opinion switching. Using both computer simulations and ordinary differential equation models, we show that: (i) The mere presence of the stubborn agents is enough to achieve adaptability, but increasing its number has detrimental effects on the performance; (ii) the system adaptation increases with increasing swarm size, while it does not depend on agents’ density, unless this is below a critical threshold; (iii) the spontaneous switching mechanism can also be used to achieve adaptability to dynamic environments, and its key parameter, the probability of switching, can be used to regulate the trade-off between accuracy and speed of adaptation. |
Keywords | Dynamic environments; Collective decision making; Best-of-n; Swarm robotics; Complex adaptive systems |
Publisher | Springer |
Journal | Swarm Intelligence |
ISSN | 1935-3812 |
Electronic | 1935-3820 |
Publication dates | |
Online | 26 Jun 2019 |
31 Dec 2019 | |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 26 Jun 2020 |
Accepted | 15 Jun 2019 |
Output status | Published |
Publisher's version | License |
Copyright Statement | © The Author(s) 2019 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1007/s11721-019-00169-8 |
Scopus EID | 2-s2.0-85068225203 |
Web of Science identifier | WOS:000495817800004 |
Language | English |
https://repository.mdx.ac.uk/item/88zy7
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