Multi agent environment for dynamic transport planning and scheduling

Nowadays, transport requests of the society are becoming more and more common and important. Computer systems may be a useful tool for transport companies. This paper is aimed at presenting a system which simulates the functioning of a transport company. The theoretical problem, which needs to be solved, is a dynamic Pickup and Delivery Problem with Time Windows and capacity constraints (PDPTW). The nature of the problem, its distribution and the possibility of using a lot of autonomous planning modules, predestines to apply a multi-agent approach. Multi-agent approach facilitates the introduction of elements which do not appear in classical PDPTW as company organisation, different strategies of requests acceptation by different vehicles or communication among vehicles. Document type: Part of book or chapter of boo

Planification des activités de transport d’une entreprise 3PL par une approche multi-agent

La répartition et l'éloignement des sites de production d'entreprises en réseau, l'éloignement et la multiplicité des centres de distribution ou l'explosion du commerce en ligne ont entrainé une augmentation croissante du nombre de demandes de transport dans le monde. Cette augmentation du volume de transports de biens et de marchandises, ajoutée au nombre croissant de déplacements de passagers a conduit à une augmentation du nombre de moyens de transport (véhicules, avions, bateaux, etc.) avec pour conséquence une augmentation de la capacité des voies de communication arrivées à saturation (autoroutes, lignes aériennes, voies de navigation), un élargissement des zones de stockage (ports, aéroports, entrepôts, etc.) et une augmentation de la pollution impactant durablement l'environnement. Dans ce contexte, l'organisation, la gestion et la planification des transports, devenues cruciales, ont favorisé l'apparition de nombreuses sociétés spécialisées (3PL) proposant une mutualisation des moyens de transport et une gestion centralisée. L'objectif de cet article est de présenter une architecture distribuée de planification des activités de transport visant à mieux utiliser les ressources de transport par le regroupement en fonction du contexte de planification de plusieurs ordres de transport

Collaborative transportation for small and medium enterprises for advancing the emerging countries

International audienceFood needs are growing rapidly with the growing population especially in case of developing countries where food preservation technology is not that much mature or even not available. It results enormous increase in prices of food commodities and higher growth rate of inflation each year. Additionally population is dispersed in the country in form of very small and large cities. Similarly, food grown in the country is also dispersed in the different areas of the country. This is highly necessary to use effective modes of transport, to collect food from these regions and distribute it with equilibrium in all the human living regions. Additionally to reduce the wastage of food in case of food shortage especially in some part of the African continent region. Food products and ingredients found and grown in one region are transported to another region, making it possible to use and eat them where they are not found. Small farmers or food producers to reach the scattered areas to distribute their products at time and cost effectively could not purchase their own vehicles, ships or planes to transport their goods. These companies contact third party transporter companies to transport their products, same as a courier company. These companies are called Third Party Logistics enterprises (3PL). These 3PL enterprises take the responsibility of performing logistics functions entirely or partially of an organization. They manage their own fleet of vehicles which drive in a certain and region. The diversity of clients due to different kind of product distribution (fresh, frozen etc.), distance from production companies and distribution cities, the size of the transport network make it even very complicated for a 3PL transporter to manage transportation planning and make efficient use of their resources. Moreover a single 3PL transporter also covers a limited region; they must collaborate with other 3PL enterprises which operate in other regions to make the delivery of the products to faraway locations. Complexity of transportation planning increases further in case of multiple 3PLE enterprises collaborating for the fulfilment of a transport order(s). The objective of this paper is to present a collaborative and distributed model for transportation planning activities aimed at better utilize transport resources by grouping several orders of transports for each effective displacement