Demand-and-supply intervening system, demand-and-supply intervening method, and demand-and-supply intervening support program

• US 20050065867A1
• Filed: 07/23/2004
• Published: 03/24/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Tanaka, Toshiaki, Handa, Keiichi, Aisu, Hideyuki, Otsuki, Tomoshi
• Application Number:
  US10/896,996
• Publication Number:
  US 20050065867A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

A demand-and-supply intervening system which supports determination of a demand-and-supply relationship between users in association with demand resources and supply resources between a plurality of users, comprises an entry acquisition unit for creating an entry set by collecting a plurality of entries each of which has a plurality of resources as demand/supply objects and a combinatorial condition to be satisfied between resources, and a candidate group determination unit for extracting a candidate group of entries so that all entries included in the candidate group satisfy combinatorial conditions included in each entry when extracting the candidate group having a plurality of entry which includes at least one entry designated as a base point, and determining the presence/absence of demand-and-supply relationships between demand and supply resources between entries which belong to the candidate group and demand-and-supply quantities.

Claims

1. A demand-and-supply intervening system which supports determination of a demand-and-supply relationship between users in association with demand resources and supply resources between a plurality of users, comprising:

entry acquisition means for creating an entry set by collecting a plurality of entries each of which has a plurality of resources as demand/supply objects and a combinatorial condition to be satisfied between resources; and

candidate group determination means for extracting a candidate group of entries so that all entries included in the candidate group satisfy combinatorial conditions included in each entry when extracting the candidate group having a plurality of entry which includes at least one entry designated as a base point, and determining the presence/absence of demand-and-supply relationships between demand and supply resources between entries which belong to the candidate group and demand-and-supply quantities.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the candidate group determination means extracts the candidate group by executing the combinatorial optimization operation that minimizes a sum total or combinatorial condition penalty values, each indicating a degree of violation to the combinatorial condition designated for each entry, of all entries included in the candidate group as an objective function.

3. The system according to claim 1 or claim 2, further comprising:

registration means for registering the plurality of entries; and

demand-and-supply candidate output means for outputting information associated with the candidate group and information associated with the demand-and-supply relationships in the candidate group, and

wherein each user who registered an entry included in the candidate group is notified of information associated with the presence/absence of the achieved demand-and-supply relationships and demand-and-supply quantities of resources included in the entry registered by that user, and it is confirmed if the user approves that information.

4. The system according to claim 3, wherein the entry has resource description data which designates a flag used to identify if a user is on the demand or supply side of that resource and the quantity of that resource, and combinatorial condition data that defines a combinational condition between a plurality of resources included in the entry, and

the combinatorial condition includes a condition that designates the quantity of resources whose demand-and-supply relationships are to be achieved or a ratio to the total quantity of that resource as a target value, or a condition that designates a lower limit value of the quantity of resources whose demand-and-supply relationships are to be achieved or a ratio to the total quantity of that resource as a target value in a set of some resources in the entry.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein a plurality of combinatorial conditions are designated for each entry.

6. The system according to claim 4, wherein a plurality of combinatorial conditions are hierarchically combined, and

a combinatorial condition of an upper layer includes a condition that designates the number of combinatorial conditions to be satisfied or a ratio of the number of combinatorial conditions to be satisfied to the total number of combinatorial conditions or a condition that designates a lower limit value of the number of combinatorial conditions to be satisfied or a ratio of the number of combinatorial conditions to be satisfied to the total number of combinatorial conditions, in a partial set of a whole set of the plurality of combinatorial conditions.

7. The system according to claim 2, wherein the entry includes a desired selling price per unit volume of each resource, and data that designates a target value of a sum total of surpluses of the entire entry, which is differences from desired selling prices of the demand-and-supply partner, and

the candidate group determining means extracts the candidate group by using the target value of the sum total of surpluses of the entire entry.

8. The system according to claim 7, wherein the candidate group determination means extracts a candidate group by minimizing a sum of a sum total of evaluation penalty values of all entries included in the candidate group and the combinatorial condition penalty values, when a value corresponding to a difference obtained when a sum total of surpluses of resources, the demand-and-supply relationship of which is achieved, in each entry, dips from the target value of the sum total of the surpluses is defined as an evaluation penalty value.

9. The system according to claim 1, claim 2 or claim 3, wherein data of a desired selling price per unit volume of each resource is appended to the resource, and

the candidate group is found by maximizing a sum total of surpluses of resources, the demand-and-supply relationship of which is achieved, in the entry designated as the base point.

10. The system according to claim 1, claim 2 or claim 3, wherein data that designates a desired selling price per unit volume of each resource and a target value of a sum total of surpluses (differences from desired selling prices of a demand/supply partner) is appended, and

a value corresponding to a difference obtained when a sum total of surpluses of resources, the demand-and-supply relationship of which is achieved, in each entry dips front the target value of the sum total of the surpluses is defined as an evaluation penalty value, and the candidate group is found by minimizing a sum total of evaluation penalty values of all entries included in the candidate group as an objective function.

11. The system according to claim 3, wherein the candidate group determining means designates an upper limit value of the number of entries included in the candidate group.

12. The system according to claim 2, wherein the candidate group determination means executes the combinatorial optimization operation using best-first search.

13. Thus system according to claim 1, claim 2 or claim 3, wherein the entry acquisition means acquires entries, with are physically distributed and input or stored, using communication means.

14. The system according to claim 1, wherein the entry acquisition means executes an inquiry process of entries, which are physically distributed and input or stored, using communication means, upon reception of an access request from the user.

15. The system according to claim 9 or claim 10, wherein the candidate group determination means include a first optimization phase that sets, as a target value of surpluses of each registered entry, an optimal value which is obtained by maximizing a sum total of surpluses of resources, the demand-and-supply relationship of which, is achieved, in the entry as an objective function, and a second optimization phase that defines, as an evaluation penalty value, a value corresponding to a difference obtained when a sum total of surpluses of resources, the demand-and-supply relationship of which is achieved, in each entry, dips from the target value of the sum total of the surpluses, and extracts the candidate group by minimizing a sum of a sum total of evaluation penalty values of all entries included in the candidate group and the combinatorial condition penalty values.

16. A system according to one of claim 9 to claim 15, wherein the entry includes resource description data which designates a flag used to identify if it user is on the demand or supply side of that resource and the quantity of that resource, and combinatorial condition data that defines a combinatorial condition between a plurality of resources included in the entry,

the combinatorial condition includes a condition that designates the quantity of resources whose demand-and-supply relationships are to be achieved or a ratio to the total quantity of that resource as a target value, a condition that designates a lower limit value of the quantity of resources whose demand-and-supply relationships are to be achieved or a ratio to the total quantity of that resource as a target value in a set of some resources in the entry, a condition that combines a plurality of the combinatorial conditions, or a condition which is specified by hierarchically combining the combinatorial conditions, and in which a combinatorial condition of an upper layer includes a condition that designates the number of combinatorial conditions to be satisfied or a ratio of the number of combinatorial conditions to be satisfied to the total number of combinatorial conditions as a target value or a condition that designates a lower limit value of the number of combinatorial conditions to be satisfied or a ratio of the number of combinatorial conditions to be satisfied to the total number of combinatorial conditions as a target value in a partial set of a whole set of the plurality of combinatorial conditions,

the demand-and-supply intervening system further comprises:

means for converting the combinatorial condition described in each entry registered by each user into at least one linear constraint formula;

means for converting a constraint required for the entry designated as the base point to belong to the candidate group into at least one linear constraint formula;

means for converting a constraint that limits a demand-and-supply relationship between resources to resources that can achieve the demand-and-supply relationship into at least one linear constraint formula;

means for converting an optimization target into a linear objective function; and

mixed integer linear programming problem solving means for solving a mixed integer linear programming program including the constraint formulas and an objective function, and outputting values of a corresponding optimization parameter set or a signal which notifies that the problem cannot be solved, wherein

the candidate group determination means determines the candidate group, and the presence/absence of demand-and-supply relationships and demand-and-supply quantities between demand and supply resources between entries which belong to the candidate group on the basis of the output result of the mixed integer linear programming problem solving means.

17. A demand-and-supply intervening method which supports determination of a demand-and-supply relationship between users in association with demand resources and supply resources between a plurality of users, comprising:

creating an entry set by collecting a plurality of entries each of which has a plurality of resources as demand/supply objects and a combinatorial condition to be satisfied between resources; and

extracting a candidate group of entries so that all entries included in the candidate group satisfy combinatorial conditions included in each entry when extracting the candidate group having a plurality of entry which includes at least one entry designated as a base point, and determining the presence/absence of demand-and-supply relationships between demand and supply resources between entries which belong to the candidate group and demand-and-supply quantities.

18. A computer readable program which supports determination of a demand-and-supply relationship between users in association with demand resources and supply resources between a plurality of users, the program making a computer execute:

a process for creating an entry set by collecting a plurality of entries each of which has a plurality of resources as demand/supply objects and a combinatorial condition to be satisfied between resources; and

a process for extracting a candidate group of entries so that all entries included in the candidate group satisfy combinatorial conditions included in each entry when extracting the candidate group having a plurality of entry which includes at least one entry designated as a base point, and determining the presence/absence of demand-and-supply relationships between demand and supply resources between entries which belong to the candidate group and demand-and-supply quantities.