An Online Mechanism for Multi-Unit Demand and its Application to Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Charging
File(s)robu13a.pdf (601.61 KB)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
We develop an online mechanism for the allocation of an expiring resource to a dynamic agent population. Each agent has a non-increasing marginal valuation function for the resource, and an upper limit on the number of units that can be allocated in any period. We propose two versions on a truthful allocation mechanism. Each modifies the decisions of a greedy online assignment algorithm by sometimes cancelling an allocation of resources. One version makes this modification immediately upon an allocation decision while a second waits until the point at which an agent departs the market. Adopting a prior-free framework, we show that the second approach has better worst-case allocative efficiency and is more scalable. On the other hand, the first approach (with immediate cancellation) may be easier in practice because it does not need to reclaim units previously allocated. We consider an application to recharging plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Using data from a real-world trial of PHEVs in the UK, we demonstrate higher system performance than a fixed price system, performance comparable with a standard, but non-truthful scheduling heuristic, and the ability to support 50% more vehicles at the same fuel cost than a simple randomized policy.
Date Issued
2013
Date Acceptance
2013-01-01
Citation
Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 2013, 48, pp.175-230
Publisher
AI Access Foundation
Start Page
175
End Page
230
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research
Volume
48
Copyright Statement
© 2013 AI Access Foundation. All rights reserved.
Identifier
http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/356347/
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Computer Science
Auctions
Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing
Applied Mathematics
Artificial Intelligence And Image Processing
Cognitive Science