Michigan AuctionBot

The Michigan AuctionBot [Wurman, Wellman, & Walsh1998] is a configurable auction server. It allows human agents to create auctions and submit bids via web forms, and software agents to perform the same operations via TCP/IP. This auction server has been operational since September 1996. Currently, the Michigan AuctionBot supports many auction types including English auctions, Dutch auctions, and Vickrey auctions. These different auctions are distinguished by the way bidders submit bids and how the allocations and prices are determined [McAfee & McMillan1987]. As far as we know, the Michigan AuctionBot is the only auction site that provides an API to enable software agents to directly talk to the server.

The AuctionBot API [O'Malley & Kelly1998] is a client/server communication protocol that is straightforward to implement for client developers in any language on any platform. The AuctionBot API functions reside on a server. Interfaces to the functions are well-defined messages encoded as strings that are sent to the server through a socket and invoke the API functions that run on the server. The server functions return string-based messages through the socket to the API client, informing it of the results of the request.

  

Figure: Agent server overview