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A new approximation algorithm for multi-agent scheduling to minimize makespan on two machines

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Abstract

This paper studies a multi-agent scheduling problem on two identical parallel machines. There are g agents, and each agent’s objective is to minimize its makespan. We present an approximation algorithm such that the performance ratio of the makespan achieved by our algorithm relative to the minimum makespan is no more than \(i+\frac{1}{6}\) for the ith \((i=1,2,\ldots ,g)\) completed agent. Moreover, we show that the performance ratio is tight.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the editor and anonymous referees for their helpful comments and suggestions which significantly improve the results and presentation of this paper. This research is supported by National Natural Science of China (11371137, 11201282) and the Fund for the Doctoral Program of China (20120074110021).

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Correspondence to Xiwen Lu.

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Zhao, K., Lu, X. & Gu, M. A new approximation algorithm for multi-agent scheduling to minimize makespan on two machines. J Sched 19, 21–31 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10951-015-0460-y

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