Sequential Online Chore Division for Autonomous Vehicle Convoy Formation

Abstract: Chore division is a class of fair division problems in which some undesirable "resource" must be shared among a set of participants, with each participant wanting to get as little as possible. Typically the set of participants is fixed and known at the outset. This paper introduces a novel variant, called sequential online chore division (SOCD), in which participants arrive and depart online, while the chore is being performed: both the total number of participants and their arrival/departure times are initially unknown. In SOCD, exactly one agent must be performing the chore at any give time (e.g. keeping lookout), and switching the performer incurs a cost. In this paper, we propose and analyze three mechanisms for SOCD: one centralized mechanism using side payments, and two distributed ones that seek to balance the participants' loads. Analysis and results are presented in a domain motivated by autonomous vehicle convoy formation, where the chore is leading the convoy so that all followers can enjoy reduced wind resistance.