Multi Agent Systems in Logistics: A Literature and State-of-the-art Review

Based on a literature survey, we aim to answer our main question: “How should we plan and execute logistics in supply chains that aim to meet today’s requirements, and how can we support such planning and execution using IT?†Today’s requirements in supply chains include inter-organizational collaboration and more responsive and tailored supply to meet specific demand. Enterprise systems fall short in meeting these requirements The focus of planning and execution systems should move towards an inter-enterprise and event-driven mode. Inter-organizational systems may support planning going from supporting information exchange and henceforth enable synchronized planning within the organizations towards the capability to do network planning based on available information throughout the network. We provide a framework for planning systems, constituting a rich landscape of possible configurations, where the centralized and fully decentralized approaches are two extremes. We define and discuss agent based systems and in particular multi agent systems (MAS). We emphasize the issue of the role of MAS coordination architectures, and then explain that transportation is, next to production, an important domain in which MAS can and actually are applied. However, implementation is not widespread and some implementation issues are explored. In this manner, we conclude that planning problems in transportation have characteristics that comply with the specific capabilities of agent systems. In particular, these systems are capable to deal with inter-organizational and event-driven planning settings, hence meeting today’s requirements in supply chain planning and execution.supply chain;MAS;multi agent systems

Multi Agent Systems in Logistics: A Literature and State-of-the-art Review

Based on a literature survey, we aim to answer our main question: “How should we plan and execute logistics in supply chains that aim to meet today’s requirements, and how can we support such planning and execution using IT?” Today’s requirements in supply chains include inter-organizational collaboration and more responsive and tailored supply to meet specific demand. Enterprise systems fall short in meeting these requirements The focus of planning and execution systems should move towards an inter-enterprise and event-driven mode. Inter-organizational systems may support planning going from supporting information exchange and henceforth enable synchronized planning within the organizations towards the capability to do network planning based on available information throughout the network. We provide a framework for planning systems, constituting a rich landscape of possible configurations, where the centralized and fully decentralized approaches are two extremes. We define and discuss agent based systems and in particular multi agent systems (MAS). We emphasize the issue of the role of MAS coordination architectures, and then explain that transportation is, next to production, an important domain in which MAS can and actually are applied. However, implementation is not widespread and some implementation issues are explored. In this manner, we conclude that planning problems in transportation have characteristics that comply with the specific capabilities of agent systems. In particular, these systems are capable to deal with inter-organizational and event-driven planning settings, hence meeting today’s requirements in supply chain planning and execution

Agent-Based Algorithms for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows

Vehicle routing problem s casovymi okny (VRPTW) je jednim z nejdulezitSjSich a nejvice zkou- manych problemu v oblasti dopravy. Matematicky model tohoto problemu vystihuje klicove vlastnosti spolecne cele fadS dalslch dopravmch problemu feSenych v praxi. Jadrem problemu je hledani mnoziny tras zacmajicicli a koncicich v jedinem depu, ktere obsahuji zastavky u mnoziny zakazniku. Pro kazdSho zakazm'ka je pak definovano konkretm' mnozstvf zbozf, jez je tfeba dorucit a casove okno, ve kterem je pozadovano dodani tohoto zbozi. Realne aplikace tohoto problemu jsou zpravidla vyrazne bohatsi, napojene na nadfazene logisticke systemy. KliSoA'ym faktorem pro uspSSne nasazeni odpovldajicich algoritmu je proto jejich fiexibilita vzhledem k dodatecnym rozSuemm zhkladmho matematickeho modelu spojenym s nasazenim v realnem sv§t§. Dalglm podstatnym faktorem je schopnost systemu reagovat na nepfedvidane udalosti jako jsou dopravm zaepy, poruchy, zmgny preferenci zakazniku atd. Multi-agentni systemy reprezentuji architekturu a navrhovy vzor vhodny pro modelovani heterogennlch a dynamickych systemu. Entity v systemu jsou v ramci multi-agentmho mo- delu reprezentovany mnozinou agentil s odpovidajlci'mi vzorci autonommho jako i spolecenskeho chovani. Chovani systemu jako celku pak vyplyva z autonomnich akci...The vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW) is one of the most important and widely studied transportation optimization problems. It abstracts the salient features of numer- ous distribution related real-world problems. It is a problem of finding a set of routes starting and ending at a single depot serving a set of geographically scattered customers, each within a specific time-window and with a specific demand of goods to be delivered. The real world applications of the VRPTW can be very complex being part of higher level sj'^stems i.e. complex supply chain management solutions. For a successful deployment it is impor- tant for these systems to be flexible in terms of incorporating the problem specific side-constraints and problem extensions in an elegant way. Also, employing efficient means of addressing the dy- namism inherent to the execution phase of the relevant operations is vital. The multi-agent systems are an emerging architectm-e with respect to modeling multi-actor heterogenous and dynamic environments. The entities within the system are represented by a set of agents endowed with autonomic as well as social behavioral patterns. The behavior of the system then emerges from their actions and interactions. The autonomic nature of such a model makes it very robust in highly...Katedra softwarového inženýrstvíDepartment of Software EngineeringFaculty of Mathematics and PhysicsMatematicko-fyzikální fakult

Autonome Sensorsysteme in der Transport- und Lebensmittellogistik

A concise supervision of food products during transport is an essential precondition for the improvement of their quality and reduction of losses. However, existing remote or telemetric systems implement only parts of the entire supervision task. Standard systems measure temperature only at one or two points, and the evaluation of sensor data has to be done manually. This thesis presents a system which measures a spatial profile of temperature and other parameters. The idea of remote transport supervision is extended to a self-contained sensor system that locally processes measurement data and detects critical situations autonomously. The algorithms for sensor data evaluation are implemented inside the means of transport; they can either share a common embedded processor unit or run separately on wireless sensors nodes, which are attached to the loaded freight objects. The system automatically adapts the supervision process to different kinds of goods. This intelligent container combines technologies from different fields, such as RFID, wireless sensor networks, and telemetric system, which have so far been applied separately. A shelf life model, based on the dynamic temperature profile, estimates the amount of quality loss during transport. The quality supervision is implemented as a set of software agents. Each freight object is supervised by an individual sensory way bill . A demonstration system for the supervision of food transports shows the feasibility of this new approach