An Approach to Optimize Lab-Seat Allocation Problem Based on Multi-Agent Negotiation

China’s higher education level is rising year by year, the traditional method of allocating “One seat per person” cannot cope with the growth in the number of students in universities. Existing approaches focus more on space utilization and less on the students’ feelings. But in fact, students are more willing to go to the lab and are more productive if they have a satisfactory lab-seat. Therefore, new and more effective methods are needed. This paper uses multi-agent negotiation method to solve the problem. Students and laboratory administrator are independent agents and the negotiations between agents determine the final allocation. Both parties adjust their offer during the negotiation process using a concession strategy based on time constraints and result in a max overall utility finally.