Assignment problem: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 03:46, 13 January 2006

Revision as of 00:16, 17 January 2006

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:There are a number of ''agents'' and a number of ''tasks''. Any agent can be assigned to perform any task, incurring some ''cost'' that may vary depending on the agent-task assignment. It is required to perform all tasks by assigning exactly one agent to each task in such a way that the ''total cost'' of the assignment is minimized.

If the numbers of agents and tasks are equal and the total cost of the assignment for all tasks is equal to the sum of the costs for each agent (or the sum of the costs for each task, which is the same thing in this case), then the problem is called the ''Linear assignment problem''. Commonly, when spokingspeaking of the ''Assignment problem'' without any additional qualification, then the ''Linear assignment problem'' is meant.

Other kinds are the [[quadratic assignment problem]], [[bottleneck assignment problem]].