---
title: "Maximization of the Average Quality of Anytime Contract Algorithms over a Time Interval"
authors:
  - "Arnaud Delhay"
  - "Max Dauchet"
  - "Patrick Taillibert"
  - "Philippe Vanheeghe"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1999/32"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1999/0032.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1999
pages: "212-220"
track: "Automated Reasoning"
keywords:
---

# Maximization of the Average Quality of Anytime Contract Algorithms over a Time Interval

Arnaud Delhay, Max Dauchet, Patrick Taillibert, Philippe Vanheeghe

*Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 212-220.

## Abstract

Previous studies considered quality optimization of anytime algorithms by taking into account the quality of the final result. The problem we are interested in is the maximization of the average quality of a contract algorithm over a time interval. We first informally illustrate and motivate this problem with few concrete situations. Then we prove that the problem is NPhard, but quadratic if the time interval is large enough. Eventually we give empirical results.