A multi-agent platform for auction-based allocation of loads in transportation logistics

This paper describes an agent-based platform for the allocation of loads in distributed transportation logistics, developed as a collaboration between CWI, Dutch National Center for Mathematics and Computer Science, Amsterdam and Vos Logistics Organizing, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. The platform follows a real business scenario proposed by Vos, and it involves a set of agents bidding for transportation loads to be distributed from a central depot in the Netherlands to different locations across Germany. The platform supports both human agents (i.e. transportation planners), who can bid through specialized planning and bidding interfaces, as well as automated, software agents. We exemplify how the proposed platform can be used to test both the bidding behaviour of human logistics planners, as well as the performance of automated auction bidding strategies, developed for such settings. The paper first introduces the business problem setting and then describes the architecture and main characteristics of our auction platform. We conclude with a preliminary discussion of our experience from a human bidding experiment, involving Vos planners competing for orders both against each other and against some (simple) automated strategies

Integrating power and reserve trade in electricity networks

As power markets become liberalised and include more intermittent generation, the trade of reserve energy will become more important. We propose a novel bidding mechanism to integrate power and reserve markets. It facilitates planning for bidding in both markets and adds expressivity to reserve bids\footnote{This work is a part of the IDeaNeD project and sponsored by Agentschap NL, a research funding agency of the dutch ministry of economic affairs, in the IOP-EMVT program. It has also been presented at the AAMAS 2011 conference

Integrating power and reserve trade in electricity networks

In power markets, the trade of reserve energy will become more important as more intermittent generation is traded. In this work, we propose a novel bidding mechanism for the integration of power and reserve markets. It adds expressivity to reserve bids and facilitates planning